Final Tech Redesign White Paper November Revision

Exploring the role of hospital
pharmacy technicians and

assistants to enhance the
delivery of patient centred care
A White Paper on the findings and outcomes of the
‘Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Role Redesign
within Australian Hospitals (Redesign) Project’
November 2016
The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia

PO Box 1774 Collingwood Victoria 3066 Australia – 03 9486 0177
http://shpa.org.au - shpa@shpa.org.au – ABN: 54 004 553 806
© The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 2016
The material in this publication has been provided by The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA). SHPA retains
copyright in the publication as a whole and in all material in the publication that is authored by or on behalf of the SHPA. Apart from
any use permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, you must not make any other use of this material unless you have written
permission to do so. Requests and enquiries regarding permission to use SHPA material should be addressed to:
Publications Coordinator
The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia
PO Box 1774
Collingwood Vic. 3066.
The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 2

Contents
Contents ......................................................................................................................................... 3
Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... 5
1 Executive Summary ................................................................................................................ 6
1.1 SHPA vision for Australian hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants for 2026 ......................... 11
2 Introduction ........................................................................................................................... 12
2.1 Australian context ............................................................................................................................12
2.2 SHPA vision .....................................................................................................................................13
2.3 Aim of this paper ..............................................................................................................................13
3 Methodology .......................................................................................................................... 14
3.1 Literature review ..............................................................................................................................14
3.2 Review of supporting frameworks ....................................................................................................14
3.3 Primary research..............................................................................................................................15
3.3.1 National Survey ........................................................................................................................15
3.3.2 Focus Groups ...........................................................................................................................16
3.3.3 Structured Interviews ................................................................................................................17
3.3.4 Mini Case Studies .....................................................................................................................17
3.3.5 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................17
4 Overview of current hospital pharmacy technician and assistant roles performed in
Australia and overseas – Literature review ............................................................................... 18
4.1 Overview ..........................................................................................................................................18
4.2 International Context ........................................................................................................................19
4.2.1 Example international role supports for hospital pharmacy technicians ..................................... 20
4.3 Australian context ............................................................................................................................20
4.3.1 Australian role supports for hospital pharmacy technicians ....................................................... 25
4.4 Discussion .......................................................................................................................................25
5 Overview of State and Territory variation ........................................................................... 28
5.1 The role of the Pharmacy Board of Australia (PBA) ......................................................................... 28
5.2 Director of pharmacy as a nationally consistent management approach .......................................... 29
6 Themes underpinned by evidence ....................................................................................... 30
6.1 Roles and responsibilities of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants ..................................... 30
6.1.1 Clinical activities........................................................................................................................30
6.1.2 Technical activities ....................................................................................................................34
6.1.3 Career structure ........................................................................................................................36
6.2 Education and training .....................................................................................................................37
6.3 Other themes from focus groups and structured interviews .............................................................. 39
6.4 Practice specific examples – mini case studies ................................................................................40
6.4.1 Major City - Principal Referral Hospital [Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital QLD] .................. 41
6.4.2 Outer Regional – Public Acute Group B Hospital [Port Augusta Hospital South Aust.] .............. 43
6.4.3 Major City – Public Acute Group A Hospital [Calvary Public Hospital ACT] ............................... 44
6.4.4 Major cities – Private Acute Group A hospital [Norwest Private Hospital NSW] ......................... 48
7 Future ..................................................................................................................................... 50
7.1.1 How can pharmacy technicians and assistants support pharmacists to increase their clinical
role? …………………………………………………………………………………………………………….50
7.1.2 Barriers/limitations ....................................................................................................................52
7.1.3 Legal considerations .................................................................................................................53
7.1.4 What do hospitals need to move forward? ................................................................................54

8 The role of SHPA ................................................................................................................... 55
8.1 The case for change ........................................................................................................................55
8.2 Prioritised interventions for SHPA to consider ..................................................................................56
8.2.1 SHPA vision for Australian hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants for 2026 .................. 56
8.2.2 Intervention 1: Update current SHPA Standards and workforce definitions available in the SHPA
Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services .............................................................................58
8.2.3 Intervention 2: Develop an Australian pharmacy technician/assistant competency standards
framework and explore SHPA’s role in credentialing individuals for defined competency areas from entry
level to advanced level ............................................................................................................................59
8.2.4 Intervention 3: Explore SHPA’s role in improving accreditation and delivery of national
qualifications ...........................................................................................................................................60
8.2.5 Intervention 4: Document current innovative and advanced practice in each jurisdiction and
consider SHPA support required to broaden this level of practice Australia-wide. ................................... 61
8.2.6 Intervention 5: Hospital pharmacy technician/assistant leadership development ....................... 63
9 Appendices ............................................................................................................................ 64
9.1 Appendix 1: Terms of Reference......................................................................................................64
9.2 Appendix 2: Engagement across Australia .......................................................................................66
9.3 Appendix 3: SHPA Standards of Practice – Chapter 12 ................................................................... 67
10 References .......................................................................................................................... 69

Acknowledgements
The development of this report was guided by the Redesign Project Steering committee chaired by Trudy
Teasdale (SHPA Federal Councillor, Queensland, Pharmacist – Assistant Director, Gold Coast Hospital and
Health Service). Contributing members included Jade Carter (Senior Technician – Epic Pharmacy Hollywood,
Western Australia), Lorah Hickman (SHPA National Pharmacy Technician Network Chair, Victoria, Senior
Technician – The Alfred Hospital, Victoria), Andrew Matthews (SHPA General Manager, Workforce
Transformation, Canberra Office), Kristin Michaels (SHPA CEO, Melbourne Office) and Dr Lisa Pont (Federal
Councillor, New South Wales, Pharmacist, Senior Research Fellow – Centre for Health Systems and Safety
Research at the Australian Institute of Health Innovation, Macquarie University).
The Redesign Steering Committee would like to thank the Project Officer, Rachael Raleigh for her work on
this project and her workplace Gold Coast Hospital and Health Service Pharmacy Department, for their
support of this project in seconding the Project Officer to this appointment.
The Redesign Steering Committee and Project Officer would like to sincerely thank Dr Andrew Brown, for his
input in developing the primary evidence and assisting the Project Officer in finalising the White Paper. Dr
Brown’s consulting on this project has been invaluable in achieving the deliverables.
As part of the Redesign Steering Committee, Andrew Matthews, (SHPA General Manager - Workforce
Transformation), has been instrumental in facilitating many of the research activities including focus groups,
structured interviews and case studies. His guidance and engagement of the key stakeholders has been
essential for the development of this report.
The development of this report would not have been possible without the enthusiastic participation of several
key stakeholders. The Redesign Steering Committee would also like to especially thank those participants
that were involved in the focus groups, structured interviews and case studies, who volunteered their time
and resources to input into the Redesign Project outcomes. The time and effort given to the development of
this project is very much appreciated.
The SHPA Secretariat has been supportive of the Redesign Project in many administrative and media related
manners. The Project Officer would like to thank them for their ongoing support.
The Redesign Project Steering Committee would also like to acknowledge the work of Rachael Raleigh, as
a Monash University Master of Clinical Pharmacy student and her supervisor Kirstie Galbraith for the
development of the literature review displayed in this report. The literature review was developed by Rachael
as a student requirement under the guidance of Kirstie Galbraith and was completed outside of the project
officer employment.

1 Executive Summary
To continue to deliver effective health care that meets the needs of the public, the pharmacy workforce must
evolve to ensure it has the capacity, capability and flexibility to function within an ever-changing healthcare
system. Commissioned by SHPA Federal Council in 2015, the ‘Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Role
Redesign within Australian Hospitals (Redesign) Project’, aims to inform this workforce change.
The practice of hospital pharmacy in Australia is evolving. Economic pressures and increasing healthcare
requirements from patients demand that the health workforce is used effectively and efficiently. The
advancing role of hospital pharmacists is a key driver for discussion around progression of the role of
pharmacy technicians and assistants in the Australian hospital setting as identified at the 2014 SHPA Future
Summit.
As pharmacists progressively move away from dispensary based supply functions and transition to team
based patient-centric roles out of the dispensary, the need to effectively harness the technician and assistant
workforce to support advancing hospital pharmacy services strengthens (2). At the Future Summit a key
outcome focused on expanding the scope of practice of pharmacy technicians and assistants to enable the
development of future models of clinical practice.
Implementation of technology in the pharmacy sector, including dispensing robotics and e-health, add to the
factors influencing the changing roles of the hospital pharmacy workforce in Australia. With technology
advancing and being utilised more broadly, it is important to begin to consider future workforce implications
and anticipate future change to maximise workforce development opportunities.
Further drivers for this work include a realisation that hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants are
underutilised compared to their OECD peers, and acknowledgement that there are only limited opportunities
for those pharmacy technicians and assistants seeking career advancement in Australia.
This report provides some insight into hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants in the Australian health
environment, promoting discussion that will guide SHPA in its role as a professional society in this changing
landscape.
This paper aims to:
 Provide a detailed review of the current roles and influencing frameworks in Australia
 With consideration of the global context, identify key areas for development in Australia
 Consider changes required to enable development
 Provide initial options for how SHPA may contribute to the improved utilisation of Australian
hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants
The Redesign Project was undertaken over a 6-month period (at 0.4FTE) from March to August in 2016, with
the content of this report developed from a series of carefully planned activities including: a literature review,
a review of supporting frameworks and primary research (national survey, focus groups, structured interviews
and mini case studies).
Key themes in the report

 Pharmacy technicians/assistants are employed in 95% of hospital pharmacies across Australia.
 Pharmacy technicians/assistants are important to the provision of pharmacy services to patients in
Australian hospitals and can be instrumental in increasing availability and impact of these services.
 There is a large variation of activities undertaken by pharmacy technicians/assistants in Australian
hospitals with some hospitals utilising pharmacy technicians/assistants more widely and with greater
responsibilities than others.
 Pharmacy legislation, awards and enterprise bargaining agreements have been developed independently
in each state and territory in Australia with significant differences and limited similarities.
 Unlike the pharmacist workforce, the pharmacy technicians/assistant workforce is not regulated nationally.

 Rural and remote environments pose particular challenges for the delivery of pharmaceutical services in
Australia with pharmacy technicians/assistants playing a significant role.
Overview of the current roles and influencing frameworks in Australia

This summary provides a broad overview of the results collected as part of the project’s key stakeholder
engagement activities. It draws on the themes identified in the literature review, national survey, focus groups,
structured interviews and mini-case studies undertaken as part of this project.
 Roles and responsibilities

o The roles and responsibilities of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants vary significantly
across Australia.
o The absence of a common definition for hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants
underpins the disparity in roles and apparent lack of professional identity for this workforce.
o Australian hospitals primarily utilise the pharmacy technician and assistant workforce for
traditional technical roles.
o Hospital pharmacy services are clinically focussed but the delivery of clinical activities is not a
focus of the pharmacy technician/assistant workforce. This is in contrast to community
counterparts, who engage in clinical activities such a facilitating care and advice on Pharmacy
Medicines and primary health care medicines routinely.
Summary: Roles and responsibilities of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants vary significantly in
Australia with the workforce largely participating in activities focussed on technical tasks rather than patient
focused clinical tasks.
 Career structure
o There is concern regarding the lack of career structure of hospital pharmacy technicians and
assistants in Australia.
o Most hospital pharmacy departments have a ‘flat’ personnel structure for pharmacy
technicians/assistants.
o High staff turnover is linked to the lack of career opportunities, which is particularly prevalent
in rural and remote locations.
o Technicians and assistants are interested in career advancement opportunities.
o Lack of training opportunities, limited incentive to undertake training and few opportunities for
progression are reported as major obstacles.
o In some states the ability to establish senior positions are limited by requesting academic
requirements that do not routinely exist as part of the technician/assistant curriculum.
o In hospitals that offer senior pharmacy technician/assistant positions it was consistently noted
that it was difficult to find pharmacy technicians/assistants with the more developed
competencies required for these roles, leading hospitals to seek more highly trained
technicians from the United Kingdom or utilising overseas trained pharmacists for senior roles.
Summary: Limited career structure and the lack of opportunities to advance practice stifle the development
of this workforce in Australia.
 Education and Training

o Although there is a national education system in Australia, the education requirements for
employment of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants are set by state and territory
based legislation and enterprise agreements, with no consistency.
o There is general recognition that the curriculum of current course offerings provides a very
basic introduction to the skills and knowledge required to work in the hospital environment.
o Stakeholder engagement noted concern regarding the varied quality of delivery of available
certificate courses and perceived weakness in approaches to assessment.

o Lack of face to face learning, interaction with pharmacists and workplace environments were
noted as concerns.
o There is a call for the development of more practical skills and face to face learning
opportunities providing more ‘fit for purpose’ competencies.
o Current education approaches do not cover some of the more advanced managerial roles
undertaken by senior pharmacy technicians and assistants.
o Where states and territories do not mandate the need for minimum education requirements
there is no driver for these courses to be undertaken, but rather a reliance on ‘in house’
credentialing programs.
o Almost universally, Australian hospital pharmacy departments conduct in house credentialing
of pharmacy technicians/assistants before allowing employees to engage in ‘dispensing’,
‘sterile manufacture/reconstitution’, ‘general manufacture’ and ‘oncology dispensing’.
o Reliance on internal credentialing demonstrates significant ‘distrust’ in the current education
system for hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants.
o In house credentialing is usually institution specific which limits the ability of
technicians/assistants to have these skills recognised in other hospitals.
o Suggestions for improving education and training include mandating requirements for
employment nationally, setting a minimum entry requirement to undertake national
qualifications, delivery of qualifications by hospital pharmacists/pharmacies and accreditation
of qualifications by an external national organisation(s).
Summary: Stakeholder engagement noted the role for SHPA in setting national standards for employment
with respect to the education and training requirements of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants. In
addition, SHPA could have a role in accrediting qualifications and credentialing individuals that undertake the
qualifications to ensure a consistent quality of practice that meets standards. Extension of this role into an
advanced practice domain for hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants is expected to follow.
 Legislative and industrial frameworks

o Legislative and industrial structures have developed independently in each state and territory
with significant differences and limited similarities.
o Each state and territory has different industrial instruments (e.g. award, enterprise agreement)
which may define the name, role, career structure, education requirements and remuneration
of hospital pharmacy technicians and/or assistants with a focus on the public health sector.
o Each private entity in Australia has its own industrial instrument, creating more variation within
states and territories.
o Assistant and technician classifications in one state are not necessarily equivalent to
classifications in another, creating difficulty in the transference of employees across sites and
between states and territories.
Summary: The pharmacy technician and assistant workforce is not regulated nationally, excepting guidelines
and standards from professional bodies that mention pharmacy technicians and assistants but are not
legislatively enforced. Legislative and industrial changes if required are the responsibility of the states and
organisations to which they apply. SHPA can advocate for legislative and industrial change but not be directly
involved in jurisdictional industrial negotiations.
Consideration of global context in identifying key areas for development in Australia

As pharmacy technician and assistant roles have evolved internationally, so too have the supporting
education, training and regulatory frameworks. International pharmacy workforces have demonstrated that
mandatory regulation, inclusive of mandatory minimum qualifications can aid in the development of this
workforce. Such supports create minimum standards in roles and support the development of advanced roles
from a uniform baseline of training and education.

Key to the regulation of this workforce in Australia would be the involvement of a regulatory agency equivalent
to the General Pharmaceutical Council in the UK. In Australia, an example agency that could assume these
regulatory functions is the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA).
With only 14 professions registered nationally, it is unlikely that pharmacy technicians/assistants will be
considered by health ministers as a workforce requiring registration in the short to medium term. It is possible
for a professional organisation to assume a professional regulatory role of the workforce it represents. This
is performed by many professions including other health professionals such as dietitians. This may include
credentialing of roles, continuing professional development, financial incentives, legislative change and
potential technician registration with legal responsibility and accountability for technicians/assistants.
Regulation via a professional body such as the SHPA would create standardisation and enable development
of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants. As demonstrated in the UK, advanced technician roles are built
on the foundation of professional regulation and training which resulted in the registration of technicians.
Mandating education and training, accreditation of qualifications and credentialing of individuals will
standardise roles and responsibilities provided across Australia. With appropriate supporting education and
training, the development of roles from a uniform baseline will also create a more structured career path for
hospital pharmacy technicians in Australia. Expansion into advanced practice domains should follow which
will ultimately shift the roles and responsibilities of technicians and assistants across Australia.
Professional bodies will also need to review and update standards and guidelines that support pharmacy
technician/assistant roles and remove statements that obstruct their development in order to advance this
workforce.
The need for change

The following points summarise the need and drivers that support SHPA’s move to drive the Australian
hospital pharmacy technician/assistant role redesign agenda forward:
 Improving the ability of hospital pharmacists to engage in advanced clinical activities and supporting the
career development of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants is consistent with the vision and core
strategic foci of SHPA.
 The desire to better utilise pharmacy technicians/assistants in Australian hospitals is a priority of many
SHPA members with current development in this area ad-hoc and based at an individual hospital level.
 Compared to our OECD partners Australia has some of the most underdeveloped systems for utilising
hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants.
 Currently there is no national approach to hospital pharmacy technician/assistant utilisation with SHPA
the national body with an interest and mandate to lead development in this space.
 Current research demonstrates both a need and opportunity for effective change with strong national
leadership from SHPA.
 Systematic national development of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants could drive SHPA’s
strategic goals, as well as provide further revenue streams for SHPA with opportunities such as a national
accreditation system, credentialing and continued professional development for hospital pharmacy
The future
 There is a strong belief from Australian hospital pharmacy stakeholders that pharmacy
technicians/assistants can have a greater role in technical activities, including the clinical support tasks
within ‘clinical activities’, under existing legislation.
 Any development of pharmacy technicians/assistants must involve pharmacists, who may need to be
socialised to the use of pharmacy technicians/assistants as part of the pharmaceutical services team.
 Training and education quality, consistency and availability, needs to be improved.
 Barriers to development include human resources, sourcing technicians/assistants and the limited number
of full time equivalent positions.
 Significant change is possible under current arrangements at the individual hospital level where the
Director of Pharmacy is able to effectively engage with ‘levers of change’, including the hospital executive,
human resource departments and consider financial implications.
 Hospital pharmacy departments are requesting: ‘advocacy tools and management supports’, ‘professional
standards and competencies’, ‘quality standardised education’ and ‘finance’ to assist in pharmacy
technician/assistant role redevelopment.
 Key stakeholder feedback was that consistency of regulation was required to allow the same skills to be
developed to grow roles across Australia.
 Expanded scope of practice roles for pharmacy technicians/assistants that the Australian hospital
pharmacy workforce would like to engage in include:
o Clinical roles including medication reconciliation, counselling and inpatient unit technician
o Accuracy checking technicians
o Technician led dispensaries
o Research, data collection and education
o Dispensing and imprest management.
Opportunities for SHPA in Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Role Redesign

SHPA has the brand and respect among stakeholders to take a leadership role defining standards for
pharmacy technician/assistant roles and associated activities, supporting the development of these
competencies through appropriate quality supportive training. SHPA could also consider adopting the
professional regulatory body role for pharmacy technicians and assistants in Australia. This will enable
pharmacists to engage in advanced clinical activities and support the development of an improved
professional environment for pharmacy technicians/assistants.
The following opportunities for SHPA were suggested by participants:

 To create a national standard definition of roles, competencies and a framework for credentialing (defining
the baseline and advanced technician/assistant roles).
 To influence the education system, create standardisation, mandatory training and continuing education
requirements that meet workplace needs.
 To accredit courses and/or administer credentialing exams.
 To be a registered training organisation delivering national qualifications.
 To enable the discussion for change within the hospital system.
 To provide leadership through a change management process.
 To advocate to government regarding technician/assistant roles in hospital pharmacy services.
 To continue to provide ongoing continuing professional development offerings.
Suggested interventions
Significant progress towards greater utilisation of pharmacy technicians/assistants may be achieved with the
following SHPA led interventions:
1. Update current SHPA Standards and workforce definitions available in the SHPA Standards of
Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services
2. Develop an Australian pharmacy technician/assistant competency standards framework and
explore SHPA’s role in credentialing individuals for defined competency areas from entry level
to advanced level
3. Explore SHPA’s role in improving accreditation and delivery of national qualifications
4. Document current innovative and advanced practice in each jurisdiction and consider SHPA
support required to broaden this level of practice Australia-wide
5. Hospital pharmacy technician/assistant leadership development

1.1 SHPA vision for Australian hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants for 2026
A national environment where entry level technicians/assistants have a sound understanding of their
role and access to education that supports the development of entry and advanced level
competencies. Where technicians/assistants can undergo credentialing for specific practice areas
with national certification, enabling movement between hospitals across Australia. Where
technician/assistant leaders are grown from within to assist in the ongoing development of the
profession, working in partnership with pharmacists to provide enhanced patient care.

2 Introduction
To continue to deliver effective health care that meets the needs of the public, the pharmacy workforce must
evolve to ensure it has the capacity, capability and flexibility to function within an ever-changing healthcare
system. Throughout 2016, the Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia (SHPA) is pursuing three projects
that will help drive the transformation of the pharmacy workforce. All three projects emanated from needs
identified by members at the 2014 and 2015 SHPA Future Summits (1).
Collectively known as Residency, Research and Redesign, these projects recognise future models of clinical
practice as key themes for development by SHPA. Specifically, the SHPA Federal Council determined that
in order to develop new and advanced practice roles in integrated care there is an immediate need to build
capacity in the pharmacist workforce through developing and expanding the scope of practice of pharmacy
technicians and assistants.
To ensure future sustainability, a review of the current roles and frameworks that support hospital pharmacy
technicians and assistants in Australia and overseas was required to identify variations in scope of practice,
opportunities for future development and inform workforce change.
Commissioned by Federal Council in November 2015, the Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Role
Redesign within Australian Hospitals (Redesign) Project, aims to inform this workforce change. The project
included a literature review and consulted a range of stakeholders via survey, focus group, interview and
case study platforms to identify current practices and requirements to enable the development of roles in the
future. The outcomes of the Redesign Project are described by this report.
2.1 Australian context

The practice of hospital pharmacy in Australia is evolving. Economic pressures and increasing healthcare
requirements from patients demand that the health workforce is used effectively and efficiently. The
advancing role of hospital pharmacists is a key driver for discussion around redesigning the role of pharmacy
technicians and assistants in the Australian hospital setting.
Further, a realisation that hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants are underutilised compared to their
OECD peers, and acknowledgement that there are only limited opportunities for those technicians and
assistants seeking career advancement in Australia, provide additional drivers to explore the Australian
hospital pharmacy workforce environment.
As pharmacists progressively move away from dispensary based supply functions and transition to team
based patient-centric roles out of the dispensary, the need to effectively harness the technician and assistant
workforce to support advancing hospital pharmacy services strengthens (2). This debate can be seen as a
positive indicator of the progress that the profession has made in clarifying the pharmacist’s role as clinical,
to deliver patient-centred pharmaceutical care.(3)
Implementation of technology in the pharmacy sector, for example dispensing robotics and e-health, add to
the factors influencing the changing roles of the hospital pharmacy workforce in Australia. With this
technology advancing and being utilised more broadly, it is important to begin to consider future workforce
implications and anticipate future change to maximise workforce development opportunities.
This report provides some insight into hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants in the Australian health
environment, promoting discussion that will guide SHPA in its role as a professional society in this changing
landscape.

2.2 SHPA vision
The SHPA vision is ‘excellence in medicines management for better health outcomes through leading
edge pharmacy practice and research’ (1). Additionally, the SHPA defines core strategic areas through
which the SHPA vision can be achieved. These are:
• ADVOCATING, LEADING & PARTNERING to influence excellence in medicines management

• Enabling a CAPABLE AND COMPETENT WORKFORCE
• Supporting the MEMBERSHIP through education, training, development and research
• Sustaining the organisation to SUPPORT AND ENHANCE THE PROFESSION
Exploring and enabling the current hospital pharmacy technician and assistant workforce in Australia to
develop is essential to attain better health outcomes through leading edge pharmacy practice, as we seek to
serve patients in the hospital health care setting. Via empowering the health workforce to evolve, the
Redesign Project epitomises the SHPA core strategic areas that will ultimately enable the realisation of the
SHPA vision, with the understanding that effective and sustainable pharmaceutical services delivery can only
occur when pharmacists work together with pharmacy technicians and assistants.
2.3 Aim of this paper

The overall purpose of this document is to inform the development of the hospital pharmacy technician and
assistant workforce in Australia thereby building capacity and improving the ability of Australian hospital
pharmacies to meet patient requirements.
This paper delivers this aim by engaging key stakeholder via a variety of forums to:
• Provide a detailed review of the current roles and influencing frameworks in Australia
• With consideration of the global context, identify key areas for development in Australia
• Consider changes required to enable development
• Provide initial options for how SHPA may contribute to the improved utilisation of Australian

3 Methodology
SHPA commissioned the Redesign Project to address the workforce needs identified at the 2014 and 2015
Future Summits. A Project Steering Committee was formed and a Project Officer appointed. The Redesign
Project was undertaken over a 6-month period (at 0.4FTE) from March to August in 2016. Throughout the 6-
month period the Redesign Project Steering Committee guided the Project Officer to ensure delivery of the
aims of the Redesign Project. The Redesign Project also utilised the skills and expertise of a Health Systems
Strengthening Consultant to assist in delivery of aims.
Project Officer: Rachael Raleigh (BPharm, GradCertPharmPrac, MClinPharm Candidate)

Health Systems Strengthening Consultant: Dr Andrew Brown (PhD, BPharm, GCHE)
This work focuses on hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants only and does not consider those working
outside of the hospital setting. For further details regarding the scope of this project refer to the Terms of
Reference available in Appendix 1.
The content of this Redesign Project report has been gathered from a series of carefully planned activities
as outlined below:
3.1 Literature review

A literature review was conducted to give an overview of the current roles that hospital pharmacy technicians
undertake overseas and in Australia and comment on the main differences. Databases searched included
PubMed, Ovid Medline, Embase and Wiley Online Library. Additional searches of specific relevant journals
were also conducted on an ad-hoc basis specifically of journals not always available via the mentioned
databases such as the Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. The search terms used included
pharmacy technician, pharmacy assistant, and pharmacy support staff, hospital and inpatient unit and role
and task. Using the Boolean phrases ‘and’ and ‘or’, these search terms were combined. Results were
additionally limited to those available in the English language that were published from 2000 onwards (2000-
present).
Literature was selected initially via abstract review and included if the article was capable of outlining roles
of hospital pharmacy technicians. Articles and conference proceedings were selected via abstract, and then
full text review and the most relevant references were included in this literature review.
3.2 Review of supporting frameworks

The Redesign Project reviewed the current frameworks supporting the hospital pharmacy technician and
assistant workforce. This included a review of both national, state and territory structures.
The national frameworks reviewed included:

o Professional guidelines (Pharmacy Board of Australia, The Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia)
o Australian Qualifications Framework
o National Qualifications for Pharmacy Technicians
 HLT Training Package: Hospital and Health Systems Support
 SIR Retail Training Package: Community Pharmacy
The state and territory structures reviewed included legislation and industrial frameworks.

3.3 Primary research
A National Survey, Focus Groups, Structured Interviews and Mini Case Studies were undertaken to
provide the primary research for this report ensuring engagement with key stakeholders.
Focus groups, structured interviews and mini case studies were conducted with representatives from around
Australia. See Appendix 2 for location and hospital classification of those involved.
The aims of these activities were:

• To validate data already collected on the current hospital pharmacy technician and assistant
workforce via an online National Survey
• To engage the current pharmacy workforce in the consideration of the future for pharmacy
technicians and assistants in the Australian hospital setting
• To gain input into the development of SHPA’s future supporting role for the progression of
3.3.1 National Survey

The Redesign Project conducted a national online survey over a period of three weeks in May 2016. The aim
of the 2016 SHPA Survey: ‘Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Workforce in Australian Hospitals’, was to
define the current roles of the pharmacy technician and assistant workforce thereby providing a baseline from
which these roles can be developed in Australia. The information provided, supplements the understanding
of the current situation and needs of the pharmacy technician and assistant workforce in Australia developed
from the literature review.
The questions in the national survey were developed by the Project Officer and Steering Committee and were
largely based on the SHPA Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services (1), the pharmacy specific
units of the Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support National Qualifications and the recently conducted
2016 FIP Global Survey (2).
The survey was delivered electronically via Survey Monkey and each hospital was invited to participate via
email to the Director of Pharmacy at the site. Reminders were sent via email and highlighted in the SHPA
eNews. Participants were required to consent to participate prior to proceeding with the survey completion.
Note: For the purposes of this survey the term technician was synonymous with assistant.
Survey demographics
A total of 154 responses representing more than 170 hospital pharmacies across Australia, were collected,
reflecting a response rate of 56% of the 308 hospital pharmacies invited to participate. Graph 1 shows the
geographical response rate as a percentage of the overall response rate.
Graph 1: Percentage Of Overall Response by Location

40.00% 31.58%
% Response
28.07%
30.00%
16.96%
20.00%
9.36% 9.36%
10.00% 1.17% 1.75% 1.75%
0.00%
Australian Queensland New South Northern South Tasmania Victoria Western
Capital Wales Territory Australia Australia
Territory
State/Territory

Graph 2 shows the percentage response rate from each state or territory comparative to the number of
hospital pharmacies in that location.
Graph 2: Percentage Response Rate of State/Territory Response

100% 89%
76%
Percentage Response
80%
60% 60%
60% 50% 50% 50% 53%
40%
20%
0%
Australian Queensland New South Northern South Australia Tasmania Victoria Western
Capital Wales Territory Australia
Territory
State/Territory
Of the hospitals that responded 86.4% were public, 12.3% were private and 1.3% identified as both public
and private hospitals. Hospital size as described by bed number was well distributed as is shown by Graph
3.
Graph 3: Hospital size by Bed Number

35.0%
30.7%
30.0%
25.0% 20.9% 22.2%
Percentage
20.0% 16.3%
15.0%
9.8%
10.0%
5.0%
0.0%
50 or less 51-100 101-200 201-500 501 or more
Total Number of Beds
3.3.2 Focus Groups

Focus groups were held in Sydney, Melbourne and Perth and included 8-14 people in each group across the
following roles, from a mix of both public and private hospital pharmacy sector:
• Department of Health representative
• Director of Pharmacy - pharmacist
• SHPA State Branch Chair - pharmacist
• SHPA State Branch National Pharmacy Technician Network Representative – Technician/Assistant
• Technicians and Assistants
• Pharmacists working with technicians and assistants
The Project Officer and the Health Systems Strengthening Consultant facilitated focus groups over a 3-hour
time period using a world café approach to elicit information consistent with the aims above. Each individual
was asked to comment on a series of questions or statements consistent with the themes recognised in the
2016 SHPA Survey. Importantly this activity focused on details specific to the future roles and how SHPA as
an organisation could support the progression of pharmacy technicians and assistants in Australia.

3.3.3 Structured Interviews
Selected structured interviews were conducted by the Health Systems Consultant using a semi structured
interview approach agreed with the Project Officer.
The invited participants represented multiple locations across a variety of roles in Australia 1:
• Pharmacy Board of Australia Representative
• National Pharmacy Technician Network Representative – Public Major City Principal Referral Hospital
[Victoria]
• Director of Pharmacy - Private Inner Regional Acute Group A Hospital [Tasmania]
• Director of Pharmacy - Public Major City Acute Group A Hospital [South Australia]
• Director of Pharmacy - Public Outer Regional Acute Group C Hospital [Queensland]
• Department of Health Representative [Northern Territory]
3.3.4 Mini Case Studies

Four mini-case studies were conducted to provide detailed examples of workforce roles and supports in four
different settings across Australia. Each site was invited to participate by completing a template case study
that highlighted unique roles technicians and assistants undertake in their hospital. The invited participants
included:
• Major City - Principal Referral Hospital [Queensland]
• Outer Regional – Public Acute Group B Hospital [South Australia]
• Major City – Public Acute Group A Hospital [Australian Capital Territory]
• Major City – Private Acute Group A Hospital [New South Wales]
3.3.5 Data analysis

Data from the ‘National Survey’, ‘Structured interviews’ and ‘Focus groups’ was analysed using manual
thematic analysis with the main themes presented in Section 5 of this paper. The mini case studies were
written by the sites listed and provide reflective insight into the variety of how hospital pharmacy
technicians/assistants are utilised in partnership with pharmacists for the delivery of pharmaceutical services
in various Australian hospital pharmacy settings.
1
The classification of hospitals is taken from the AIHW Australian Hospitals Peer Groups: see
http://www.aihw.gov.au/publication-detail/?id=60129553446

4 Overview of current hospital pharmacy technician and assistant roles
performed in Australia and overseas – Literature review
Note: For the purposes of this literature review the term technician was synonymous with assistant.
Evidence suggests that the addition of clinical pharmacist services in the inpatient setting results in improved
quality, safety and efficiency of patient care (4). Currently, however in Australian hospitals, not all patients
are seen by a pharmacist. Several studies have shown that utilising pharmacy assistants increases
pharmacist’s time spent on clinical tasks (5-11). Advancing roles of pharmacy technicians and enhanced
utilisation of this workforce is key for the development of hospital pharmacy services in Australia and the
facilitation of pharmacists practising to their full scope (12).
History indicates that progression of the hospital pharmacy technician workforce stems from a complex
interplay of training and regulatory changes over several years (12-14). The United Kingdom exemplifies
some of the more advanced roles technicians are capable of undertaking (15-18). The roles were built on the
foundation of professional regulation and training resulting in a requirement for registration of technicians in
the UK (13, 14). The United States of America (USA) similarly displays trends of advanced technician roles
but lacks standardisation in training and regulatory requirements thus limiting uniform progression of scope
comparative to the UK (5, 6, 14, 19, 20). Australia is elementary in its utilisation of hospital pharmacy
technicians comparative to its overseas counterparts and currently lacks the supporting regulatory and
training frameworks required to progress this workforce across the nation.
Momentum is building in support of progression of hospital pharmacy technician roles in Australia and change
is imminent (21). A review of the current roles of hospital pharmacy technicians in Australian and overseas
is required to identify variations and future scope of practice to inform workforce change and ensure optimal
outcomes and sustainability into the future.
This literature review aims to give an overview of the current roles that hospital pharmacy technicians
undertake overseas and in Australia, comment on the main differences and provides context for the
development of this workforce in Australia.
4.1 Overview
Traditional roles for hospital pharmacy technicians include technical tasks such as maintaining a
pharmaceutical imprest, packing pharmaceutical products, assisting with the dispensing process and
compounding pharmaceuticals (7, 12, 18-20, 22-29). In Australia these technical tasks are supported by on
the job training and the voluntary completion of Australian Qualifications, provided by the Vocational
Education and Training (VET) sector (30). The two main qualifications for hospital pharmacy technicians that
outline these traditional roles are the Certificate III and IV in Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support (30).
Table 1: Pharmacy specific units of the Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support Certificates, outlines the
hospital pharmacy specific units and roles that technicians are trained to complete through these national
qualifications (30). It additionally outlines specific literature demonstrating the completion of these roles by
technicians around the world.
Ever expanding requirements for clinical pharmacy services and finite resources from which we are able to
provide these services, has led to the development of technician roles to include clinical task provision. The
Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia (SHPA) outlines standards for the provision of clinical pharmacy
services via the pharmacy technician workforce (28). Although not formal qualifications, these national
professional standards outline clinical support tasks deemed appropriate for completion by trained hospital

pharmacy technicians (22, 28). See Table 2: Pharmacy technician roles supporting clinical pharmacy
services as outlined by the SHPA, for more detail including references reporting these roles.
The need for advancement of pharmacy technician roles has long been recognised overseas in Europe
particularly in the United Kingdom and North America (13, 14, 31). Improvements in training and regulation
of hospital pharmacy technicians overseas have supported more advanced roles with technicians becoming
increasingly involved in more advanced technical and clinical task provision including checking and
medication history taking roles (5, 6, 12, 17-20, 23-27, 29, 32).
The additional roles pharmacy technicians have been reported to complete in the literature reviewed are
outlined by Table 3: Additional hospital pharmacy technician roles outlined in the literature. As is evidenced
by Table 3, some Australian hospitals employ in house training to facilitate performance of roles outside the
scope of those previously mentioned (7, 10, 33).
Advancements beyond the scope demonstrated by these Australian studies to that of our overseas
counterparts will require a national approach but at present Australia lacks the infrastructure in training and
regulation to develop such roles. Additionally, current recommendations from the Pharmacy Board of
Australia (PBA) and Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia (SHPA) respectively, state that technician
workforce roles ‘must be limited to activities that do not require professional judgement or discretion’ (34)
and ‘activities that require clinical judgement such as listening to patients, assessing treatment or counselling
patients are not to be undertaken by pharmacy assistants and technicians’ (28). At this point in time these
statements and the lack of standardised training and regulatory frameworks supporting the development of
this workforce obstruct national implementation of extended roles hospital pharmacy technicians undertake
overseas.
4.2 International Context

Drug distribution/ technical roles for pharmacy technicians and assistants are also a major focus in the
international literature. Increasingly though, progressive roles for pharmacy technicians and assistants
contributing to clinical pharmacy services are described (2, 3). Pharmacy technicians overseas perform
complex roles including technician checking, patient medication history taking, medicine reconciliation and
patient education and counselling (6, 14, 17, 29, 32, 35, 36) (See Table 3). The completion of complex roles
has led to the requirement of more evidence evaluating the impact of these roles and the importance of
technicians in the provision of pharmacy services to ensure optimal patient care in hospitals.
In addition to traditional technical roles completed by Australian hospital pharmacy technicians, overseas
technicians perform the final check on medicines in ‘tech-check-tech’ activities (19, 23, 24). With both groups
displaying high levels of checking accuracy, the completion of this task by a trained technician has been
found to be just as accurate as a pharmacist final check (23). Evidence also shows that utilising technicians
in this role increases the pharmacist time spent on direct patient care activities (23). Specifically, a study by
McKee et al found that using a certified pharmacy technician to check unit dose medications prepared by
other technicians saved clinical pharmacists in excess of 50 hours per month with a substantially lower error
rate comparative to a pharmacist checking (19).
Technicians overseas have advanced substantially in clinical task provision too, having been found to be
effective in obtaining and documenting medication histories and performing the process of medication
reconciliation (25, 29). This process involves obtaining a precise and actual medication list which may require
patient, relative, carer and general practitioner interviews, the review of personal electronic medication
profiles and/or patient notes to reconcile differences (16). Given that we know incomplete medication histories
obtained on hospital admission are responsible for more than 25% of prescribing errors (16) and not all

patients are seen by a pharmacist, technicians can be used to expand the reach of pharmacy services and
improve patient care (4, 5, 7, 9). This has been demonstrated in the preoperative setting where a technician
medication history taking and reconciliation program showed a statistically significant reduction in medication
discrepancies (35, 37).
Furthermore, evidence to support clinical technician roles on inpatient units has been described by several
international papers (8, 15, 17). The presence of clinical technicians on inpatients units has a positive impact
on clinical pharmacy service provision and patient care as is shown by a statistically significant increase
(P=0.001) in pharmacist interventions when working with a technician (38). In the intensive care setting
clinical pharmacy technicians reduced the time required for a pharmacist to review a patient by undertaking
tasks such as patient data collection, screening and tracking patient progress, therapeutic drug monitoring,
adverse drug reaction reporting and ward based troubleshooting (8). The assistance of a technician with
these tasks increased the number of patients reviewed by the pharmacist each day (8). Given that clinical
pharmacist services in the inpatient setting result in improved quality, safety and efficiency of patient care (4),
using pharmacy technicians to increase pharmacist time allocated to direct patient care is important for
patient outcomes. Another study similarly found such roles spared pharmacist time by reducing the number
of phone calls to the dispensary by 60% and reducing the weekend workload by 23% (15).
4.2.1 Example international role supports for hospital pharmacy technicians

As these roles evolved internationally, so to have the supporting education, training and regulatory
frameworks. In the UK, registration of pharmacy technicians is undertaken by the General Pharmaceutical
Council (GPhC) and has been mandatory since July 2011 (13, 14). To register the technician must have a
GPhC approved qualification or equivalent in addition to a qualifying period of work experience (13, 14). As
a registered profession they additionally have ongoing professional development requirements (14).
Technicians in the UK also have their own professional leadership body called the Association of Pharmacy
Technicians UK (APTUK) which long predates the introduction of mandatory registration (13). APTUK
provides developmental support, influences change for the advancement of technicians and promotes the
pharmacy technician profession (13). Their structured and regulated profession, inclusive of a technician
specific professional body, positions the UK as a leader in the advancement of pharmacy technicians.
The United States of America is not as advanced as the UK in terms of regulation and training. There is no
mandatory registration requirement (14) and as such less standardisation of technician roles exists across
the country. The formation of the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) in 1995 began formal
regulation of pharmacy technicians, however states have the option to opt-in (14, 19, 31). Certification is
voluntary but has still been instrumental in the expansion of pharmacy technician roles in the USA (14, 19).
The 2013 USA Pharmacy Practice Model Summit outlined key recommendations to advance technician
practice including the development of a defined scope of practice, uniform national standards of education
and training, mandatory certification and licensing (12). At present, certification requirements differ between
states and are not mandatory in the USA thus limiting the uniform expansion of technician roles (19, 31).
USA also has several pharmacy technician specific professional associations e.g. the National Pharmacy
Technician Association who advocate for the advancement of technician roles (14). Pharmacy technician
registration is also required in other countries including: Canada, Denmark and Singapore (2).
4.3 Australian context

In Australia, hospital pharmacy technician roles are historically based on on-the-job training and have
developed in areas of workforce need largely due to high pharmacist position vacancy rates (11, 39).

Evidence indicates Australian hospital pharmacy technicians largely perform technical roles such as imprest
management and dispensing as outlined by the VET qualifications (see Table 1) (30, 39, 40). The literature
now also consistently reports involvement in clinical support roles (see Table 2) with studies reporting about
10% of hospital pharmacy technician time spent in this area (7, 9, 10, 22, 30, 33, 39-44). As shown in
Appendix 3 the SHPA Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services outline clinical support roles
appropriately trained hospital pharmacy technicians can perform (28).
It is known that some Australian technicians exceed the scope defined by Table 1 and 2 and reflect the scope
of practice of overseas hospital pharmacy technicians with in-house training but without formal frameworks
in education, training and regulation, these individuals are not representative of the mass (21). Table 3 further
highlights the limited involvement of Australian hospital pharmacy technicians in advanced scope of practice
roles as reported in the literature.
Specifically, the minimal involvement in clinical roles and expanded scope of practice roles as described
overseas is supported by an Australian study of the sub-acute aged care setting from 2012 (22, 43). Elliott et
al found that clinical activities such as assisting with medication history and reconciliation, medication chart
reviews and screening or documenting laboratory test results were roles rarely completed by a technician
(22, 43).
The more advanced roles technicians are reported to complete in Australian hospitals are primarily completed
as part of clinical inpatient unit or ward role with many Australian articles supporting the use of technicians in
this setting (7, 9-11). Leversha et al described the role of a ward pharmacy technician in non-clinical tasks in
2001 (11). Tasks included identification of patients admitted in previous 24 hours, photocopying drug charts,
asking the patient about medication supply, annotating medication charts with location of medicines, ensuring
non-imprest medication supply and referral of any questions to the clinical pharmacist (11). Turner et al
expanded on these tasks and described additional clinical tasks technicians could be involved in suggesting
ward pharmacy technician can effectively assist a pharmacist in achieving optimum clinical care for patients
(7). Seaton et al further demonstrated the advantage of using a ward pharmacy technician to facilitate
medication delivery, describing the technician role in identifying discrepancies between medication orders
and items in the bedside drawers and notifying the clinical pharmacist (10). The incidence of missed doses
decreased significantly from 7.9-8.9% to 0% post the implementation of the technician roles in medication
delivery, realising a cost saving of 5-11% of the net ward costs per quarter (10).
Elliott et al have further outlined ward pharmacy technician tasks and additionally demonstrated their
importance in the provision of clinical pharmacy services in 2014 (9). Tasks completed by the technician
included assisting with individual patient medication supply, screening medication charts for changes,
assisting with medication reconciliation and recording laboratory data for review by the pharmacist (9).
Specific to the inpatient setting, Elliot et al showed that the implementation of an inpatient unit pharmacy
technician role in an Australian hospital increased the pharmacist time spent on clinical tasks from 58% to
73.9% (P<0.0001) (9). In an average working day (7.6 hours) that equates to an additional 1.2 hours per day
spent on clinical activities. Time released by pharmacy technician utilisation has also been shown to increase
the number of patients seen by a pharmacist (8, 9). This study also showed an increase in the median number
of pharmacist interventions (9). In addition to improving clinical pharmacy service availability, inpatient unit
technician roles have been reported to improve unit satisfaction with clinical pharmacy services & individual
staff satisfaction (7).

Table 1: Pharmacy specific units of the Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support Certificates* (30)
Course Code Task Key elements within task Literature supporting task
Australia Europe N America
HLTPHA001 Maintain pharmaceutical 1. Monitor imprest stock against 3. Complete documentation process ✔ ✔ ✔
imprest stock requirements (7, 9-11, 22, (15, 17) (8, 14, 20,
2. Select and dispatch stock 33, 43, 45) 23, 46)
HLTPHA002 Pack pharmaceutical products 1. Prepare for packaging 3. Conduct quality control ✔ ✔ ✔
Certificate III & IV
2. Pack products 4. Complete packaging process (7, 9-11, 22, (15, 17) (8, 14, 20,
33, 43, 45) 23, 46)
HLTPHA003 Assist with dispensing of 1. Accept order for dispensing 3. Prepare for labelling of meds. ✔ ✔ ✔
prescription and medication 2. Ensure clinical evaluation by 4. Assemble items (7, 9-11, 22, (15, 17) (8, 14, 20,
orders pharmacist 5. Finalise dispensing of medicine 33, 43, 45) 23, 46)
HLTPHA004 Order, maintain and distribute 1. Procure stock 5. Dispatch orders ✔ ✔ ✔
pharmaceutical stock 2. Process new stock 6. Process returned stock (7, 9-11, 22, (15, 17) (8, 14, 20,
3. Handle and maintain stock 7. Assist in stocktaking procedures 33, 43, 45) 46)
4. Select and pack item order
HLTPHA005 Conduct small scale 1. Source information on formula 5. Complete production process ✔ ✔ ✔
compounding and labelling of 2. Prepare for production process 6. Participate in quality control (33) (47) (8, 14, 20,
pharmaceutical products 3. Obtain equipment and supplies 7. Store and transport released 27, 46)
4. Compound products product
HLTPHA006 Provide assistance in 1. Perform dispensing administration 3. Process pharmaceutical benefits ✔ ✔ ✔
dispensary administration tasks claims (7, 22, 33, (17) (14, 20, 46,
2. Maintain dispensary information 45) 48)
HLTPHA007 Conduct small – scale 1. Source information on formula 6. Compound products using ✔ ✔ ✔
Certificate IV only
compounding and labelling of 2. Prepare for production process aseptic techniques (33) (47) (8, 14, 20,
aseptic pharmaceutical 3. Obtain equipment and supplies 7. Complete production process 46)
products 4. Prepare for sterile manufacturing 8. Participate in quality control
5. Prepare for cytotoxic production 9. Store & transport released prod
HLTPHA008 Support pharmacist 1. Identify client information needs 4. Collect information and provide to ✔ ✔ ✔
communication with clients 2. Gather and prepare information to meet other health professionals (7, 10, 22, (17) (46)
and other health professionals client needs 5. Confirm that client information 33, 45)
3. Provide specific or prepared needs have been met
information to clients
HLTPHA009
Support pharmacists in the 1. Identify and address requirements for
3. Present workplace data and ✔ ✔ ✔
collection and presentation of data and information collection information (7, 9, 22, 33) (17) (8, 20, 46)
workplace data and 2. Prepare data and information for use
information
*Note the number of references is not representative of the frequency of completion, merely the references in this review that support the tasks completion by hospital pharmacy technicians.

Table 2: Pharmacy technician roles supporting clinical pharmacy services as outlined by the SHPA* (28)
Tasks Supported by SHPA Literature Supporting Task
Australia Europe N America
Medication Reconciliation 1. Detect new admissions/patients that require a clinical pharmacy service ✔ ✔ ✔
2. Where there are well-defined protocols, screen patients for their ability to self-medicate (7, 9-11, 21, (14, 15, (14, 20)
3. Communicate medicines supply information with health professionals, e.g. medical and nursing staff 22, 33) 17)
4. Ensure all medicines required for the patient are available in the patient care area
5. Assist in managing the storage and retrieval of patient’s own medicines
6. Communicate with external health professionals (GP, community pharmacist, nursing home/hostel
staff) to obtain information for a medicine list for review by a pharmacist
Medication Management Plan 1. Where there are well-defined protocols, use the checklist in the National Medication Management Plan ✔ ✔ ✔
or similar to identify patients at high risk of medication misadventure (22, 43) (15, 16) (20, 49)
2. Where there are well-defined protocols, use the checklist in the National Medication Management Plan
or similar to identify patients that would benefit from an HMR referral or other follow-up
Assessment of current medication 1. Check the medicine order for compliance with legal and local requirements. Identify non-compliant ✔ ✔ ✔
management orders and refer to the pharmacist when appropriate (9-11, 21, (14, 15) (12)
2. Annotate medication chart with information on the supply of the medicine, e.g. imprest item 22)
Clinical Review 1. Access and record patient specific laboratory data ✔ ✔ ✔
2. Screen lab data for abnormal or unexpected results for the pharmacist by comparing the result with a (7, 9, 21, 22, (17) (8, 12, 46,
defined reference range or other parameter to assist the pharmacists clinical review of the patient 33, 43) 49)
Adverse drug reaction management 1. Assist pharmacists with documenting and processing of confirmed ADR reports ✔ ✔ ✔
(10, 22, 33, (37) (8, 16)
43)
Therapeutic drug monitoring 1. Access and record drug levels screen drug levels for abnormal results for pharmacists by comparing ✔ ✔ ✔
with defined reference range (7, 9, 21, 22, (17) (8, 20, 46)
33, 43)
Provision of medicines information to 1. Gather consumer medicines information (CMI) leaflets ✔ ✔ ✔
patients 2. Distribute CMI leaflets to patients prior to counselling by pharmacist (7, 9, 21, 22, (14, 17, (14, 27, 46,
33, 43) 36) 50)
Information for ongoing care 1. Identify patients requiring communication with community health professionals ✔ ✔ ✔
2. Identify patients requiring further supply of medicines on discharge and if they consent to accessing (7, 9, 21, 22, (15, 17) (20, 23, 46)
these medicines through the PBS 33, 43, 45)
3. Assist in preparing information for transfer to community healthcare providers
4. Assist in preparing a medicine list for the patient
5. Communicate med supply info by phone with community pharmacist & other health professionals
6. Communicate by facsimile/e-mail/letter with community pharmacist, GP and nurse after a final check by
a pharmacist
*Participation in interdisciplinary planning and provision of medicines information to health professionals are not represented in this table as no specific support roles to assist clinical pharmacists
in these activities are described by the SHPA. *Note the number of references is not representative of the frequency of completion, merely the references in this review that support the tasks
completion by hospital pharmacy technicians.

Table 3: Additional hospital pharmacy technician roles outlined in the literature
Additional task Literature Supporting Task Literature Supporting Task
Australia Europe N America Australia Europe N America

Technician Checking ✗ ✔ ✔ Select, maintain and program infusion ✗ ✗ ✔
(14, 15, 18) (14, 19, 20, devices for specific patients inclusive of IV (20, 46)
23, 24) compatibility assessments
Medication history taking ✔ ✔ ✔ Administer medications ✗ ✗ ✔
(21, 43) (15-17, 38) (5, 6, 12, 20, (20, 46)
25-27, 29, 32,
35, 49)
Medication reconciliation ✔ ✔ ✔ Pharmacy technician in informatics ✔ ✗ ✔
(9, 21) (16, 17, 37) (6, 12, 20, 25, including data analysis, automation and (33) (14, 20, 23,
26, 29, 32) technology 48, 51)
Patient education ✔ ✔ ✔ Phlebotomy ✗ ✔ ✗
(21) (14, 17, 36) (14, 27, 46, (17)
50)
Counselling on medication with specific ✔ ✔ ✔ Calculate creatinine clearance ✔ ✗ ✗
techniques (e.g. inhalers, warfarin, clozapine) (21) (17) (14, 27, 46, (9)
50)
Assessment of medical device technique ✗ ✔ ✗ Cell based therapies manufacture for ✔ ✗ ✗
(36) cancer treatments (52)
Adherence assessments including self- ✔ ✔ ✔ Radiopharmaceuticals ✔ ✗ ✗
medication programs management (43) (17, 50) (17, 50) (33)
Medication management roles/ clinical ✔ ✔ ✔ Support in the running of outpatient clinics ✗ ✔ ✔
pharmacy technicians (10) (14, 15, 17, (8, 14) including ambulatory care, anticoagulation, (37) (46, 49, 50)
38) hypertension and osteoporosis clinics
Participation in Multidisciplinary meetings, ✔ ✔ ✔ Clinical trials coordinator ✗ ✔ ✗
nursing handover or discharge planning (9, 43) (17) (46) (14, 15)
Dose administration aids management ✔ ✔ ✔ Management, supervision, training, project ✔ ✔ ✔
(22, 33) (15) (8, 14) management, quality improvement and (33) (14, 15) (8, 14, 20,
quality assurance 46, 48, 51)
*Note the number of references is not representative of the frequency of completion, merely the references in this review that support the tasks completion by hospital pharmacy
technicians.

This growing body of evidence supports the use of pharmacy technicians in more advanced roles
such as those required on inpatient units and could be associated with improved patient care (9).
4.3.1 Australian role supports for hospital pharmacy technicians

As is evident from the literature there is disparity in roles completed by hospital pharmacy technicians
in Australia. Similar to the USA, this variance has arisen from multiple factors including differences in
state and territory industrial and legislative frameworks and differences in education, training and
qualification requirements for employment (14, 39). Figure 1: ‘Overview of some supports and the
relationships governing hospital pharmacy technicians in Australia’ briefly overviews some of the
legislative bodies, professional bodies and education, training and qualifications influencing pharmacy
technician practice in Australia and displays some of the existing relationships between bodies. It is
not intended to give a comprehensive overview but merely begin to illustrate the complexities between
bodies governing the technician workforce.
As mentioned previously, national qualifications and professional standards for hospital pharmacy
technicians do exist in Australia, however they are not mandatory (28, 30, 33, 39). Differences in
individual hospital requirements for employment of pharmacy technicians has arisen from a lack of
regulation of the pharmacy technician workforce. Across Australian hospitals, there are no mandatory
minimum qualifications or performance criteria. This ultimately creates a workforce with limited ability
to progress, and little ability for transference of skill across sites due to a lack of standardisation in
roles across Australia.
Technicians are interested in career advancement opportunities but previously, a lack of training
opportunities has been reported as a major obstacle to technician progression (22, 53). Positively, a
series of papers reviewing the Australian hospital pharmacy workforce has found that the number of
hospital pharmacy technicians with a formal qualification is gradually increasing from less than 40%
in 2003, to over 50% in 2007, with the most recent survey in 2012 of 214 hospital pharmacy
technicians in Australia reporting 93% were currently undertaking or held a relevant formal
qualification (33, 39, 41). Creating some form of mandatory baseline skill requirement for employment
in Australian Hospitals will be crucial to transition this workforce into more complex roles.
4.4 Discussion
It is clear that hospital pharmacy technicians have a broad array of roles across the world (see Tables
1 – 3). The importance of their role for the delivery of hospital pharmacy services and quality patient
care has been outlined by several studies (5-11, 32, 38). Australia is less advanced in comparison to
other areas of the world in its utilisation of the pharmacy technician workforce in the hospital setting.
It is clear that the scope of practice of Australian hospital pharmacy technicians can be developed as
evidenced by our overseas counterparts (14, 16, 17, 23, 26).
International pharmacy workforces have demonstrated that mandatory regulation implementation,

inclusive of mandatory minimum qualifications can aid in the development of this workforce (13, 14,
31). Such supports create minimum standards in technician roles and support the development of
advanced roles from a uniform baseline of training and education. With appropriate supporting
education and training, the development of roles from a uniform baseline will also create a more
structured career path for hospital pharmacy technicians in Australia. Despite differences in legislative

Figure 1: Overview of some supports and the relationships governing hospital pharmacy technicians in Australia (28, 30, 34, 54).
and industrial frameworks, it would also increase the transferability of hospital pharmacy technician
skills across states and territories.
Key to the regulation of this workforce in Australia would be the involvement of a regulatory agency
equivalent to the General Pharmaceutical Council in the UK (13). In Australia, an example agency
that could assume these regulatory functions is the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
(AHPRA) (54). AHPRA is responsible for regulating health professionals in the public interest via the
implementation of the National Registration and Accreditation Scheme (50), which at present does
not encompass the pharmacy technician workforce. It could be argued that the missing link between
AHPRA and pharmacy technicians in Figure 1 could be key to the development of regulatory support
pharmacy technicians require to advance their profession.
With only 14 professions registered nationally, it is unlikely that pharmacy technicians will be
considered by health ministers as a workforce requiring registration in the short to medium term. It is
possible though, for a professional organisation to assume a professional regulatory role through
credentialing and accreditation of the workforces it represents. This is already performed by many
professions including other health professionals such as dietitians. The adoption of this regulatory
role by a professional body is an alternative approach that could provide the required support to
enable the development of pharmacy technicians.
Professional bodies will also need to review and update standards and guidelines that support
pharmacy technician roles and remove statements that obstruct their development in order to advance
this workforce.
It is evident from this review that technicians are important to the provision of pharmacy services to
patients in Australian hospitals and can be instrumental in increasing availability and impact of these
services (5-11, 38). Change is necessary to support the development of roles completed by Australian
hospital pharmacy technicians and expand their scope of practice to that of overseas hospital
pharmacy technicians.
5 Overview of State and Territory variation
The Commonwealth of Australia is a federal system, with powers divided between the central
government and individual states and territories. Governance concerning health services delivery is
complex in this system. Hospital care has a further degree of complexity with state and territory
authorities responsible for public hospitals while the private hospital system is funded through a
‘backbone’ of federally funded services including the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).
The profession of a pharmacist is overseen by a national pharmacy board with federal consistency
aligning state legislation (in the most part). In comparison, the practice of pharmacy comes under the
jurisdiction of varying state and territory based legislation with the roles and responsibilities of hospital
pharmacy technicians and assistants varying significantly across the Commonwealth.
In addition to varying state and territory legislation governing the practice of pharmacy (distribution,
dispensing and administration of medicine), each state and territory has a different legal instrument
(award, enterprise agreement etc.) which defines the name, role, career structure, education
requirements and remuneration of hospital pharmacy technicians and/or assistants with a focus on
the public health sector. Each private entity in Australia additionally has its own legal instrument,
creating more variation within states and territories (education is discussed in more detail later in this
report). This disparity between states means some states/territories utilise only pharmacy assistants,
others only pharmacy technicians whilst some employ both assistants and technicians in their
hospitals. These complexities are compounded by the fact that the assistant classification in one state
is not necessarily equivalent to an assistant classification in another, for example in the public sector
in Queensland an assistant - advanced classified as an OO4 based on qualification requirements
could be equivalent to a technician level 2 in the Victorian or New South Wales public sector (55, 56).
These structures have developed independently in each state and territory with significant differences
and limited similarities. Unlike the pharmacist workforce, the pharmacy technician and assistant
workforce is not regulated nationally, excepting guidelines and standards from professional bodies
that mention pharmacy technicians and assistants but are not legislatively enforced. In many ways
the Commonwealth of Australia could be considered as ‘eight countries’ when considering the role
and careers of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants. Due to this substantial variation a lack
of understanding exists within the profession and creates difficulty in the transferring of employees
between states and territories.
The absence of a common definition of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants underlies the
apparent lack of identity for this workforce which has been described more clearly for the pharmacist
workforce but is less well studied in the technician and assistant workforce (2). In Australia, community
pharmacy is seen as a separate career stream for pharmacy technicians/assistants which adds
another layer of complexity for employees seeking to make a career as a pharmacy
technician/assistant.
5.1 The role of the Pharmacy Board of Australia (PBA)

The PBA does not have a role in dealing directly with pharmacy technicians/assistants. It does not
regulate their scope of practice. There is nothing in legislation for the PBA to be involved in the scope
of practice of pharmacy technicians/assistants.
The Board does provide guidance to pharmacists in response to what is in the public interest with
regard to the practice of pharmacists. Any guidance the Board publishes is in the broader context of
the practice of the profession e.g. as described in practice standards such as those developed by
professional organisations.

PBA has a guideline for dispensing medicines that includes guidance on using ‘suitably trained
dispensary assistants, dispensary technicians or hospital pharmacy technicians’ but these are not
defined in more detail, noting that there may be definitions that apply for other purposes e.g. industry
awards.
Guidelines for dispensing medicines (section 12).

www.pharmacyboard.gov.au/documents/default.aspx?record=WD15%2f17694&dbid=AP&chksum=whuWgDvj
9dwviuEOS%2bHzOg%3d%3d
5.2 Director of pharmacy as a nationally consistent management approach

It is interesting to note that the internal governance of hospital pharmacy departments across Australia
is remarkably similar. It is the Director of Pharmacy that has the authority to engage with the hospital
executive of a specific institution to ultimately decide on the human resources structure of their
department. Roles and responsibilities of individuals within the pharmacy workforce are defined under
this structure to deliver pharmaceutical services in that hospital under the interpretation of the
presiding pharmacy legislation within set financial parameters.
It is this ‘autonomy’ that reflects the varied structures and use of pharmacy technicians/assistants
across different hospitals within the same state or territory jurisdiction. It is these same Directors of
Pharmacy that will be the most significant ‘levers of change’ as the pharmacy workforce evolves into
the future.

6 Themes underpinned by evidence
The main themes that have emerged from the ‘National Survey’, ‘structured interviews’ and ‘focus
groups’ are presented in this section.
6.1 Roles and responsibilities of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants

According to the SHPA national survey technicians and/or assistants are employed in 95% of hospital
pharmacies across Australia. The primary reason for not employing pharmacy technicians or
assistants in the hospital pharmacy workforce was a lack of funding. Of the hospital pharmacies that
employed this workforce the total number of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) positions ranged from 0.1 –
36.1 with the majority of respondents employing between 0.1 to 5 FTE as shown by Graph 4. Vacant
positions were reported by 36% of respondents, reporting between 0.2 and 3.2 vacant FTE.
Graph 4: Number of FTE employed by respondent

40
35
30
FTE Employed
25
20
15
10
5
0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Respondent Number
A series of questions related to roles pharmacy technicians and assistants undertake in the hospital
pharmacy context were asked in relation to three key areas – clinical, technical and retail. The
questions relating to clinical roles were developed based on the SHPA Standards of Practice for
Clinical Pharmacy Services, the questions related primarily to technical roles were developed with
reference to the Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support Certificates available in Australia and
the questions related to retail services were developed with reference to the Quality Care Pharmacy
Program (QCPP) (57).
There is a large variation of technical activities undertaken by pharmacy technicians/assistants in
Australian hospitals with some hospitals utilising pharmacy technicians/assistants more widely and
with greater responsibilities than others. This is highlighted further in the mini case studies presented
in this report.
Rural and remote environments pose particular challenges for the delivery of pharmaceutical services
in Australia with pharmacy technicians/assistants playing a significant role which is being further
explored in Queensland, Northern Territory and Western Australia.
6.1.1 Clinical activities
Clinical: Activities described by the SHPA Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy
Services
Chapter 12: Pharmacy Assistants and Technicians supporting Clinical Pharmacy Services (Appendix
3) of the Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services describes a series of activities related

to clinical services in hospital pharmacy (1). The Redesign Project Survey initially asked respondents
to indicate if their pharmacy provided the clinical activity listed. As is evident from the high percentages
below, clinical activities were provided by majority of the hospital pharmacies surveyed.
Percentage of hospitals surveyed performing clinical activities:
• Medication Reconciliation – 96.4% (Graph 5)
• Medication management plans – 87.3% (Graph 6)
• Assessment of current medication management – 98.5% (Graph 7)
• Clinical review – 97.8% (Graph 8)
• Therapeutic drug monitoring – 84.4% (Graph 9)
• Adverse Drug Reaction Management – 92.6% (Graph 10)
• Provision of medicines information to health professionals – 100% (Graph 11)
• Supply of medicines information to patients – 99.3% (Graph 12)
• Provision of information for ongoing care – 96.3% (Graph 13)
The respondents that indicated provision of the clinical activity by their hospital pharmacy were then
asked to indicate whether pharmacy technicians were involved in the provision of specific activities
forming that clinical activity by answering: yes, no or unsure. Figure 2 represent the responses
collected. The overwhelming presence of yellow in Figure 2, representative of the response: no;
illustrates the limited involvement of Australian hospital pharmacy technicians in the support of clinical
activity provision.
Even those roles endorsed by the SHPA (See Appendix 3) as suitable for appropriately trained
technicians and assistants are seldom performed by this workforce. It is clear from these results that
hospital pharmacy services are clinically focussed. However as is shown by Figure 2, delivery of
clinical activities is clearly not a focus of the pharmacy technician and assistant workforce.
These results were further supported through the structured interviews and focus groups which also
noted that hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants do not engage in ‘clinical activities’. For the
purpose of this report ‘clinical activities’ were defined as: activities that require a degree of judgement
such as listening to patients, assessing treatment or counselling patients [for example medication
reconciliation, provision of medicines information to patients and assessing patients to self-medicate]
(1).
Of note is that SHPA and selected hospitals break down ‘clinical activities’ undertaken by pharmacists
into sub activities that would be considered clinical support activities. For example, medication
reconciliation is classified as a ‘clinical activity’ but the sub activities of contacting the community
pharmacy and patient’s doctor to have information sent to the hospital and entered into the hospital
software, are clinical support activities, with the pharmacist completing the final verification of the
clinical activity in its entirety.
In contrast to their community counterparts, who engage in routine Pharmacy Medicines and primary
health care counselling, current SHPA Standards clearly indicate that no counselling should be
performed by the hospital pharmacy technician/assistant workforce (1). Pharmacy
technicians/assistants moving between industries find this unusual. The complexity of health care in
the hospital setting is a reason often given for this variation.

Figure 2: Graphs summarising clinical activity involvement of
technicians and assistants
Legend of activities outlined in Figure 2 (1) 3. Screen patient-specific clinical information for
Medication Reconciliation the pharmacist by comparing the result with a
1. Detect new admissions/patients that require a defined reference range or other parameter to
clinical pharmacy service assist the pharmacist’s clinical review of the
2. Where there are well-defined protocols, screen patient
patients for their ability to self-medicate 4. Interpret patient-specific laboratory data
3. Communicate medicines supply information with 5. Interpret patent-specific clinical data
health professionals
4. Assist in managing the storage and retrieval of Adverse Drug Reaction Management
patient’s own medicines 1. Assist pharmacist with documenting and
5. Ensure all medicines required for the patient are processing of confirmed ADR reports
available in the patient care area 2. Identify patients who have had a previous ADR
6. Communicate with external health professions 3. Ensure previous ADRs are documented
to obtain information for medicine list for review by 4. Check ADR history as part of the dispensing
a pharmacist process
7. Interview patient/carer to obtain medication
history Therapeutic Drug Monitoring
8. Perform medication history review 1. Access and record drug levels
9. Interview patient/carer to determine allergies 2. Screen drug levels for abnormal results for
10. Compare medication history with medication pharmacists by comparing with defined reference
chart range
11. Investigate medicines-related problems 3. Interpret drug levels
Medication Management Plan Provision of medicines information to health

1. Where there are well-defined protocols, use the professionals
checklist in the National Medication Management 1. Receive medicines information queries
Plan or Similar to identify patients at high risk of 2. Search for medicines information without direct
medication misadventure supervision of a pharmacist
2. Where there are well-defined protocols, use the 3. Interpret medicines information
checklist in the National Medication Management 4. Discuss medicines information with nurses
Plan or Similar to identify patients that would 5. Discuss medicines information with medical staff
benefit from a HMR referral or other follow up
3. Interpret medicine changes in context of the Provision of medicines information to patients
medicines management plan 1. Gather CMI leaflets
4. Clinical assessment of medication management 2. Distribute CMI leaflets to patients prior to
counselling by pharmacist
Assessment of Current Medication 3. Distribute CMI leaflets to patients with
Management counselling
1. Check the medicine order for compliance with 4. Conduct counselling on any medicines
legal and local requirements. Identify non- 5. Conduct counselling on disease state
compliant orders and refer to the pharmacist when management
appropriate 6. Identify patients requiring medication
2. Annotate medication chart with information on counselling
the supply of the medicine 7. Identify patients requiring adherence aids
3. Educate medical staff regarding prescription
writing and medicine selection Information for ongoing care
4. Annotate medication chart with clinical 1. Identify patients requiring communication with
information community health professionals
5. Ensure the medicine order is appropriate with 2. Identify patients requiring further supply of
respect to patient’s previous medicine, patient- medicines on discharge and if they consent to
specific considerations, drug, dosage, form and accessing these medicines through the PBS
method of administration 3. Assist in preparing information for transfer to
6. Ensure all necessary medicines are prescribed community healthcare providers
4. Assist in preparing a medicine list for the patient
Clinical Review 5. Communicate medicine supply information by
1. Access and record patient specific laboratory telephone with community pharmacist and other
data health professionals
2. Screen laboratory data for abnormal or 6. Communicate by facsimile/e-mail/letter with
unexpected results for the pharmacist by community pharmacist, GP and nurse after final
comparing the result with a defined reference check by a pharmacist
range or other parameter to assist the 7. Provide information regarding medicines other
pharmacist’s clinical review of the patient than supply
6.1.2 Technical activities
Technical: Activities described by the Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support Certificates
The pharmacy specific units described by the National Qualifications currently available for hospital
pharmacy technicians and assistants via the Certificate III and IV in Hospital/Health Services
Pharmacy Support, were used as the basis for the questions related to technical activities. The survey
initially asked respondents to indicate if their pharmacy provided the activity. Those that indicated
provision of the activity by the pharmacy, were then asked to indicate if pharmacy
technicians/assistants were involved in provision of the activity and if so, in which specific elements.
Table 4: Technical areas of pharmacy technician and assistant activity in Australian Hospitals,
outlines the results of this section.
Consistent with the literature review completed, Australian hospitals utilise the pharmacy technician
and assistant workforce for traditional technical roles. Interestingly, out of the 9 hospital specific units
in the Hospital/Health Services Qualifications only 3 units indicated a performance rate by the hospital
pharmacy service less than 90%. The activities ‘pack pharmaceutical products, conduct small scale
compounding and labelling of pharmaceutical products and conduct small scale compounding and
labelling of aseptic pharmaceutical products’, were provided by 78.4%, 64.7% and 43.6% of hospital
pharmacy services respectively. This could indicate a shift towards outsourcing such activities in
Australian hospitals.
The unit activity described as ‘Communicate with clients and other health professionals’ has large
similarities with some of the tasks described by the SHPA Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy
Services and supports the notion that hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants in Australia have
limited involvement in speaking directly to the patient or other health care professionals. This is
exemplified by the low percentage involvement of pharmacy technicians and assistants in the
provision of this activity and its elements.
The structured interviews and focus groups noted ‘dispensing’, ‘imprest and ward supply’ and ‘sterile
manufacture’ as the most common technical roles for hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants.
Retail: Activities typically provided by QCPP pharmacies

Of the hospital pharmacies surveyed only 5.3% (7) provided a retail pharmacy service open to the
public. Of these retail services 57.1% (4) were Quality Care Pharmacy Program (QCPP) accredited
and 71.4% (5) use technicians or assistants in the provision of Pharmacy Medicines and appropriate
referral for Pharmacist Only Medicines.
Private hospital pharmacies, a special note

During the structured interviews and focus groups it was noted that in private hospital pharmacy there
is significant emphasis placed on activities to support Pharmaceutical Benefit Scheme (PBS)
compliance as this is the main funding stream for this sector.

Table 4: Technical areas of pharmacy technician and assistant activity in Australian Hospitals
Unit activity % of % of If the hospital pharmacy does use technicians to provide the
hospital hospital activity, the activity has been broken into elements and the
pharmacies pharmacies respondent was specifically asked about the elements within a
that provide that use unit activity.
activity technicians
% of hospital
to provide
Element pharmacies that
activity
use technicians to
provide element
within unit activity.
Maintain 99.3% 97.0% Monitor imprest stock against requirements 98.5%
pharmaceutical Select and dispatch stock 98.5%
imprest stocks Complete documentation process 92.3%
Pack 78.4% 76.9% Prepare for packaging 99.0%
pharmaceutical Pack products 95.1%
products Conduct quality control 81.4%
Complete packaging process 91.2%
Assist with 100% 97.7% Accept order for dispensing 91.5%
dispensing of Ensure clinical evaluation by pharmacist 79.2%
prescriptions and Prepare for labelling of medicines 96.2%
medication orders
Order, maintain 100% 98.5% Procure stock 90.8%
and distribute Process new stock 93.1%
pharmaceutical Handle and maintain stock 94.7%
stock Select and pack item order 93.1%
Dispatch orders 93.9%
Process returned stock 97.7%
Assist in stocktaking procedures 99.2%
Conduct small 64.7% 41.4% Source information on formula 87.7%
scale Prepare for production process 97.7%
compounding and Obtain equipment and supplies 93.0%
labelling of Compound products 93.0%
pharmaceutical Complete production process 95.0%
products Participate in quality control 56.1%
Store and transport released product 93.0%
Assistance in 90.2% 82.7% Perform dispensing administration tasks 90.0%
dispensary Maintain dispensary information 75.5%
administration Process pharmaceutical benefits claims 75.5%
Conduct small 43.6% 37.6% Source information on formula 82.0%
scale Prepare for production process 96.0%
compounding and Obtain equipment and supplied 96.0%
labelling of Prepare for sterile manufacturing 96.0%
aseptic Prepare for cytotoxic production 84.0%
pharmaceutical Compound products using aseptic techniques 100.0%
products Complete production process 94.0%
Participate in quality control 66.0%
Store and transport released product 94.0%
Communicate 99.3% 69.2% Identify client information needs 38.5%
with clients and Gather and prepare information to meet client 38.5%
other health needs
professionals Provide specific or prepared information to clients 42.9%
Collect information and provide to other health 30.8%
professionals
Confirm that client information needs have been 17.6%
met
Collect and 90.2% 50.8% Identify and address requirements for data and 85.1%
present information collection
workplace data Prepare data and information for use 76.1%
and information Present workplace data and information 62.7%

Additional roles performed by technicians and assistants in Australian hospitals
The National Survey provided evidence that some sites use the pharmacy technician and assistant
workforce in a variety of additional roles, stating involvement in:
• Medication safety audits and drug use evaluation

• Clinical trials reconciliation and documentation
• Transport of medication and documentation between sites
• Webster packing
• Ensuring all inpatients have venous thromboembolism prophylaxis assessment
• Administration and documentation of controlled drugs for destruction
• Regional visits to small sites to review stock control
• Administer and maintain PYXIS machines and robotic dispensing systems
• Information technology software support
• Management of staff, including recruitment, orientation, performance review and
development
• Dispensary Manager (all staff – pharmacists and technicians)
• Occupational Health Safety officer
• Finance report management
• Project management
• Service development and quality improvement
• Maintenance of pharmacy equipment
• Education sessions for medical/nursing staff on PBS
• Administration activities
• Management of special medicine supply schemes (stock and documentation) including
vaccines, blood products, special access scheme, hospital in the home, antimicrobial
stewardship program
6.1.3 Career structure

Within the state based focus groups issues concerning the career structure of hospital pharmacy
technicians and assistants were discussed. All three groups noted that the current career structure
for hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants was limited with few opportunities for progression.
Limited or no training and no incentive for training was highlighted as a current limitation. Participants
who had previous exposure to ‘customers’ in the community pharmacy setting or a wider scope of
practice (experience in the United Kingdom), felt under-utilised and uninspired by their current career,
while pay scales limited the ability to award high achievers.
High staff turnover was not noted as an issue during focus group discussions. The structured
interviews revealed that in more rural and remote environments it was more difficult to obtain suitably
skilled staff.
The lack of consistency of pharmacy technician/assistant roles between hospitals makes it difficult for
employees to move between institutions and to have their competencies recognised. In some states
the ability to establish senior positions may be limited by requesting academic requirements that do
not routinely exist as part of the technician/assistant curriculum. For example, in NSW the award
requires Level 4 technicians to hold a management qualification.
In hospitals that offered senior pharmacy technician/assistant positions it was consistently noted that
it was difficult to find pharmacy technicians/assistants with the more developed competencies
required for these roles with hospitals seeking more highly trained technicians from the United
Kingdom or utilising overseas trained pharmacists for senior roles.

‘We have a pharmacy technician management position coming up; historically we have looked for
overseas trained technicians for these roles due to the Australian qualifications not providing
appropriate competencies’ Quote from structured interview
The mini case studies highlight that senior pharmacy technician roles have been developed by some
pharmacy departments in such areas as education and dispensary managers but these positions
would be considered unusual. In some states senior pharmacy technician levels are noted in the
enterprise agreement but these posts are not developed in practice due to limitations in funding and
a limited understanding by human resources departments of the role and function of such positions.
Most hospital pharmacy departments have a ‘flat’ personnel structure for pharmacy
technicians/assistants and utilise roster rotations which may limit opportunities for specialisation.
6.2 Education and training

The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) governs the availability of nationally recognised
qualifications in the academic and vocational sectors. These qualifications are delivered by
Registered Training Organisations (RTOs) in the vocational sector under the national supervision of
the Federal Department of Education and Training. In the case of non-pharmacist education in the
pharmacy sector there are two separate learning packages, community and hospital. There is very
limited cross recognition between these two qualifications which requires technicians/assistants
moving between community and hospital to retrain.
In the community pharmacy stream SIR20116 – Certificate II in Community Pharmacy, SIR30116 -

Certificate III in Community Pharmacy, SIR40116 – Certificate IV in Community Pharmacy and SIR
40216 – Certificate IV in Community Pharmacy Dispensary are the qualifications offered.
In the hospital pharmacy stream HLT37115 - Certificate III in Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy
Support and HLT47115 - Certificate IV in Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support are the
qualifications offered.
RTOs obtain approval (scope) from the Federal Department of Education and Training to deliver
qualifications according to the approved qualification outline. RTOs are free to interpret the content of
the courses against the approved ‘competency’ areas as outlined in the curriculum. There are
currently four organisations registered to deliver Certificate III and IV in Hospital/Health Services
Pharmacy Support. Two offer these courses through a distance mode Australia wide:
 Box Hill Institute Polytechnic TEI
 Stanborough Wemyss Contracting Pty Ltd
One provides Certificate IV to Western Australia residents only:
 North Metropolitan TAFE
And the final is registered to provide both Certificates to New South Wales residents only but is
currently not actually providing the course
 TAFE NSW - Western Institute
Although there is a national education system in Australia, the education requirements of hospital
pharmacy technicians and assistants are set by state and territory based legislation and enterprise
agreements. There is currently no consistency across states and territories in this regard. For example
in comparing Queensland, Victoria and South Australia it is noted that The Queensland Health Drugs
and Poisons Regulation 1996 (legislation) determines that a hospital pharmacy assistant must have
a VET qualification under the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011
recognising that the person has the skills and knowledge required to perform pharmaceutical imprest

duties (interpreted as completion of the ‘imprest module’ of the HLT training package). In the public
sector to progress to a higher level the Queensland Health Operational Services Manual then requires
an ‘advanced pharmacy assistant’ to have completed a Certificate IV or equivalent (56). In contrast,
in Victoria an assistant does not require any formal qualification for employment and a staff member
holding a Certificate IV hospital qualification would be classified as a technician level 2 as outlined by
the Victorian Award (public sector) (55). South Australian hospitals do not require qualifications for
assistant employment either. This demonstrates the qualification requirements, if any, differ greatly
between states/territories. The lack of standardisation in educational requirements creates
complexities and leads to difficulties in creating workforce definitions for assistant versus technician
in terms of both name and role.
Where states and territories do not mandate the need for minimum education requirements there is
no driver for these courses to be undertaken, but rather a reliance on ‘in house’ credentialing
programs.
Structured interviews and focus groups noted concern regarding the varied quality of delivery of
currently available certificate courses and perceived weakness in approaches to assessment. With a
call for the development of more practical skills and face to face leaning opportunities providing more
‘fit for purpose’ competencies. The lack of face to face learning, interaction with pharmacists and
workplace environments were noted as concerns.
Where hospital pharmacy departments engaged in the Certificate III and IV courses it was noted that
significant engagement of local senior technicians and assistants or pharmacist mentors was required
to enable course completion to a level seen as appropriate for that hospital.
There is a general recognition that the curriculum of current course offerings provided a very basic
introduction to the skills and knowledge required to work in the hospital environment. Current
education approaches do not cover some of the more advanced managerial roles undertaken by
senior pharmacy technicians.
‘What is currently missing is judgment and clinical reasoning; a diploma or other qualification would
be required to develop these competencies.’ Quote from structured interviews
Almost universally, Australian hospital pharmacy departments conduct in house credentialing of

pharmacy technicians/assistants before allowing employees to engage in ‘dispensing’, ‘sterile
manufacture/reconstitution’, ‘general manufacture’ and ‘oncology dispensing’ (even if these staff have
completed Certificate III and IV in Hospital Health Services Pharmacy Support). This heavy reliance
on internal credentialing demonstrates significant distrust in the current education system for hospital
pharmacy technicians/assistants.
In house credentialing is usually institution specific which limits the ability of technicians/assistants to
have these skills recognised in other hospitals. Discussions have been underway in South Australia
and Western Australia to develop methods to recognise credentialing between hospitals (a learning
passport approach).
For private hospitals Certificate III and Certificate IV in Community Pharmacy is preferred as supply
is underpinned by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) in this sector. Currently, Certificate III
and Certificate IV in Hospital Health Services Pharmacy Support include limited PBS competence.
The following prioritised suggestions for improving pharmacy technician/assistant education and
training were noted from the focus groups:

• Make education mandatory
• Set minimum education standards with minimum entry requirements (English, mathematics
and science)
• Certificates delivered by hospital pharmacists
• Incentives to attend education
• Release from working hours
• Develop a technician apprenticeship to employ student technicians and have TAFE based
training on a weekly day release over a number of years
• Utilise a technician level framework to ensure practice is the same across Australia (assumes
a competency standard is developed)
• Include a mix of on the job and face to face learning with some therapeutics
• Improve quality of course and make it ‘fail-able’
• Develop an SHPA credentialed course based on basic tasks and more advanced tasks and
ensure there is rigor in the assessment
Both the focus groups and structured interviews noted the role for SHPA in setting national standards
for the use of pharmacy technicians/assistants with supporting accredited training that meets
consistent standards. SHPA has a major role to play in addressing some of the above suggestions to
enable the development of this workforce.
6.3 Other themes from focus groups and structured interviews

There was an overwhelming feeling from within focus groups and structured interviews that pharmacy
technicians/assistants are a significant part of the pharmacy workforce and in many contexts
underutilised. Participants cited the significant potential in this workforce if given the tools. This may
include certification of roles, better education, financial incentives, legislation change and potential
technician registration/accreditation with legal responsibility/accountability for technicians.
‘Technicians can’t be undervalued. A good technician is a valuable person to have in the workplace.
There is no doubt that their role can be expanded. There needs to be structure around
advancement.’ Quote from structured interview
Additional comments regarding hospital pharmacy technicians in Australia largely revolved around
the need for standardisation across sites and the country, fixed nationwide training, with consistency
of roles and consistency of regulation to allow the same skills to be developed to grow roles. Another
key theme was the requirement to progress this workforce to enable the progression of the pharmacist
role in hospitals again linking back to the initial evolution of the Redesign Project.
Culturally there was significant emphasis from both structured interviews and focus groups that any
development of technician roles must involve taking pharmacists technicians/assistants and other
stakeholders on the journey. Many pharmacists are not aware of the potential of technicians and are
familiar with a working culture where they take full responsibility. A subset of pharmacists and
technicians/assistants will be resistant to changing roles and will be content with their current roles
and responsibilities. This needs to be balanced against the desire to progress pharmacy
technician/assistant roles by those wishing to advance pharmacist roles and those motivated to
improve the career prospects for technicians and assistants.
Participants also noted the influence of new technology and the broader concepts of redesigning staff
skills mix, not only in the pharmacy department but across the hospital, as factors that could influence
the development of pharmacy technician/assistant roles.

6.4 Practice specific examples – mini case studies
These mini case studies are included to highlight some of the progressive practice roles Australian
pharmacy technicians/assistants are gradually adopting across Australia in response to the evolving
requirements of hospital pharmacy services.
These case studies highlight the importance of well-trained pharmacy assistants and technicians
across a range of hospitals in Australia. Study sites were selected based on geographical location,
AIWH Peer Group Classification and survey response to ensure representation across a range of
Australian hospitals (58).
Four mini case studies are included:

• Major City - Principal Referral Hospital [Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital QLD]
• Outer Regional – Public Acute Group B Hospital [Port Augusta Hospital SA]
• Major City – Public Acute Group A Hospital [Calvary Public Hospital ACT]
• Major City – Private Acute Group A Hospital [Norwest Private Hospital NSW]
These sites demonstrate advanced utilisation of this workforce and all describe similar challenges in
progressing the role of pharmacy technicians and assistants across Australia.

6.4.1 Major City - Principal Referral Hospital [Royal Brisbane & Women’s Hospital QLD]
Contributed by Ian Coombes (Director of Pharmacy) and
Rachel Merigan (Pharmacy Assistant Team Leader),
Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital.
Overview
The Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital is a 900 bed tertiary referral teaching hospital with 2.5
pharmacists to one assistant/ technician. The pharmacy assistant team operate in various
dispensaries/satellites across the hospital and in some locations are responsible for all the workflow
that takes place. These locations are imprest area (stock picked and prepared all on site), controlled
drug vault, clinical trials satellite, mental health centre outpatient pharmacy, cancer care outpatient
pharmacy, cancer care aseptic production unit, women’s and newborns satellite, general medical and
surgical satellite and the main outpatient pharmacy.
The composition of the pharmacy assistant team is as follows:

• 18 X Pharmacy Assistants (full and part time)
• 6 X Advanced Scope Pharmacy Assistants
• 1 X Senior Pharmacy Assistant Team Leader
Technical roles completed by pharmacy assistants at RBWH include:

• Imprest, Controlled drugs, dispensing inpatient, discharges, outpatients
• Generation of Med Action plans, discharge medication action plan, from clinical pharmacist
history and reviewed/authorised by a clinical pharmacist
• Manufacturing of aseptic medications
• Manufacturing of pre-package medications
The RBWH has advanced scope pharmacy assistant positions that are relatively new. These positions
can work in the areas listed in above but these pharmacy assistants have undertaken further
education to work in higher skilled roles, these are;
 Ambulatory services for Chronic Kidney Disease patients and cancer care patients reviewing
own medicines and gathering information from primary care community pharmacies and
nursing homes for review and interpretation by clinical pharmacists
 Project support for implementation of service redesign re drug supply: Direct to ward delivery
and implementation of automated medication distribution systems
 Ward based assistant funded by service lines, cancer care, internal medicine and renal
medicine. Operating on the wards, with patient interaction and medication supply being a
strong objective. This role ensures that Pharmacists are given more time to conduct better
clinical services.
 Education and training assistant that operates at 0.5per week (the other 0.5 is ward based).
This role works closely with the senior pharmacy assistant team leader to support the assistant
team with best practice initiatives for the technical workflow. Facilitates in creating and
maintaining individual portfolios, as well as conducting strong orientation for new and existing
employees.
Pharmacist/assistant interaction
Pharmacists supervise daily workload of satellite/dispensary based assistants and ward based
assistants but senior technician is responsible for recruitment, development, liaison with pharmacy
team leaders.

Education requirements
• Minimum of certificate III in Pharmacy (community based) with the emphasis to enrol into
certificate III hospital pharmacy services, as this is preferred.
• Minimum of certificate IV (hospital services) or equivalent for any advanced scope pharmacy
assistant positions
• Monthly clinical education provided by pharmacists
• Use of annual Advanced Technician Level Framework (developed by Queensland Safe
Medication Practice Unit based on the UK Competency Development and Evaluation Group
(CoDEG) tools available) by trained pharmacy educators – who work 0.5 FTE as clinical ward
based assistant
• Annual imprest competency checklist and completion
• Annual dispensing competency checklist and completion
• Annual validation (must pass) for aseptic manufacturing and cytotoxic medication production
Expanded scope of practice roles/projects

• Chronic Kidney Disease assistant working in dialysis units and outpatient clinics reviewing
patients own medicines, taking medication histories from community pharmacies, residential
aged care facilities etc.
• The cancer care advanced scope ward based assistant position was originally a pilot and has
very recently been made permanent. In the pilot phase data was collected which provided
strong findings of better service delivery from the pharmacy department to cancer care
services. This has led to other similar advanced scope pilots currently in the department; it is
hoped that these position will become permanent too and lead to further advanced scope
roles.
Current or emerging challenges regarding pharmacy assistant/technician progression

• About to undertake checking technician pilot
• Recruitment of suitably trained staff (using UK trained/credentialed staff)
• Lack of widely available hospital certificate III and IV courses.
The lack of opportunity to embark in further education at a certificate III and IV level in hospital
pharmacy services is a big concern. The desire for career progression is a big focus for the pharmacy
assistant team and is actively supported by all parts in the RWBH pharmacy department however;
there is a lack of education available to provide this. Many jobs (especially the advance scope
positions) are given to staff that have better education and experience behind them and they are
usually from the UK. It is very disheartening that pharmacy assistants who have commenced
employment in Australia are not able to access the same type of learning. The future of the pharmacy
assistant/technician workforce has the potential to create stronger skillsets that aren’t at a pharmacist
clinical level but would greatly assist in pharmacists’ time management to provide better service
delivery. The feedback from many pharmacy assistants is that they want that opportunity but
unfortunately are not able to access it but it can be seen that opportunity exists outside Australia.

6.4.2 Outer Regional – Public Acute Group B Hospital [Port Augusta Hospital South Aust.]
Contributed by Tasma Wagner, Chief Pharmacist, Port Augusta Hospital
Overview
The Port Augusta Hospital pharmacy services up to 80 acute beds with paediatric, obstetric,
gynaecological, surgical, emergency unit and general medical units. Satellite Renal dialysis centre
(36 patients) and oncology services (6 chairs). Staffing consists of 4 FTE pharmacists, 3 FTE
technicians and 1 FTE intern pharmacist. Outreach service (clinical and distribution) provision to a
number of smaller hospitals within region.
Technical roles completed by the technicians include:

Stock maintenance, distribution services (to ward and to outreach sites), stock usage monitoring and
reports, imprest reviews, pharmacy product file maintenance, financial billing extract assistance, PBS
claiming, accreditation activities (cold chain monitoring and reporting, APINCH drug monitoring)

Clinical roles technicians undertake include renal dialysis unit patient follow up of adherence issues
and medication profile maintenance for chronic disease aboriginal patients in remote areas.
Innovative roles pharmacy technicians are utilised for included outreach service provision.
Technicians assist to maintain adequate stock levels, ordering quantities and storage advice to
remote outreach clinics. Where appropriate they also visit remote sites to maintain stock holding
requirements and monitor storage conditions. They assist with medication profile maintenance for
patients in remote sites (such as Oodnadatta and Marree). General enquiry answering particularly
with regard to access to medications remotely (with referral to Pharmacists as well) is also completed
by the technician.
Pharmacist/technician interaction
The pharmacists and technicians work collaboratively to provide supportive services with dispensing
and distribution. They provide advice on alternative stock availability and costing where appropriate.
They support monitoring renal dialysis unit patient adherence and follow up required prescriptions etc.
from offsite nephrologists to ensure continuity of care. Monitoring of ward medication distribution
systems, medication expiry and usage with particular attention to minimising wastage and maximising
cost efficiency of medications utilised.
Training is provided in the form of online SA Health training, dispensing training (ad Hoc), medication
profile maintenance training (train-the-trainer), NPS high risk medicines training on line, cytotoxic
handling and dispensing training (on line modules) and clinical handover training.
Acknowledge the need to conduct projects on technicians working in rural hospital settings due to the
multi-task nature of their role and expanding scope of practice. There is no formal training pathway
for career progression and technical staff are limited in how they can advance their career.

With the right training pharmacists could be assisted with medication history taking activities
(technicians could assist to locate secondary information sources), medication profile creation
(technicians could draft profiles for final pharmacist review), medication safety and auditing activities
(dose reconciliation etc.) and more formalised process for assisting with hospital accreditation
activities.

6.4.3 Major City – Public Acute Group A Hospital [Calvary Public Hospital ACT]
Contributed by Emily Diprose (Lead Pharmacist) and
Sarah Smith (Lead pharmacist), Calvary Public Hospital Bruce
Overview
Calvary Public Hospital Bruce comprises a 256 bed general hospital as well as a 19 bed hospice –
located off the main campus. We are a teaching hospital of the Australian National University, The
University of Canberra and the Australian Catholic University. The Hospital is funded by ACT Health
Directorate and managed by the Little Company of Mary Health Care.
The hospital provides a range of inpatient, ambulatory care and outreach facilities and services. Our
inpatient services include: Emergency medicine, Intensive Care, Cardiology, Hospital in the Home,
Obstetrics and Gynaecology, Ophthalmology, Cardiology, Head and neck surgery, Orthopaedics,
Anaesthetics, Plastics, Endocrinology, Neonatology, Maternity services, Mental Health, Ear, nose and
throat, Neurology, Respiratory, Gastroenterology, Rheumatology, General medicine, Urology,
General surgery, and Oncology.
Within the Pharmacy Department there are 28 FTE positions, of which 20 are pharmacist positions
and 6.5 are technical officer positions (including our purchasing officer) and 1 ASO position. Pharmacy
services to the hospital include ward clinical pharmacy services, patient counselling and continuum
of care management, participation in outpatient cardiac rehabilitation education, pharmacotherapy
education sessions for hospital staff, aseptic manufacturing services, clinical trials, individual patient
dispensing for non-imprest stock, ward imprest supplies, an AMS program and some outpatient
dispensing. The aseptic dispensing service is provided using the Department’s aseptic room and
laminar flow cabinet, with formulation of total parenteral nutrition (TPN), and other IV additives
including epidural dose forms.
Pharmacy assistant/technician technical roles:

Technicians at our site are involved in the following:
• Prescription processing including the dispensing of prescriptions for inpatients, patients on
discharge and outpatients, and the preparation of medication profiles.
• Sterile and non-sterile compounding of pharmaceuticals
• Pre-packing and labelling of pharmaceuticals
• Servicing the ward imprest system, re-stocking the afterhours cupboard, filling medication
requisitions, and delivering medications to wards
• Inventory management through sorting and crediting stock, assisting in ordering and receipt
of pharmaceuticals and undertaking stocktakes
• Housekeeping activities including record keeping, archiving, filing and tidying and stocking
shelves.
• Ward management of medications dispensed from pharmacy – ordering non imprest items.
Pharmacy assistant/technician clinical roles:

Technicians at our site working in our “Ward Technician” role undertake the following clinical activities
• Medication chart annotation and chart rewrite checking
• Identification of any inappropriate prescriptions (e.g. illegible, prescribed medication not on
formulary, patient allergic, dosage error) to be followed up by ward pharmacist

Technicians at our site rotate through our “Ward duties” role. While the current role predominately
focuses on supply of medications, it is a step towards future clinical duties as staffing allows. In this
rotation, the technician (once credentialed) performs the following:
• Medication chart annotation and re-write checking
• Management of individually supplied (i.e. non-imprest) medications
• Storage and labelling of patients own medications
• Transfer of individually dispensed medications if patient’s are transferred between wards
• Return or disposal of medications on patient discharge
• Review of medications storage within the medication rooms (including the refrigerator) and
return or disposal of ceased medications
• Flagging of any inappropriate prescribing with ward pharmacist
This role is based on a project from 2011, a prospective, two-phase, observational analysis of time
invested by a pharmacist performing ward duties was conducted over two five-week intervals. Phase
one data was collected when a pharmacy technician was not present on the ward. A pharmacy
technician was then trained for three weeks to conduct ward duties which included medication supply,
pathology screening and discharge facilitation and planning. Phase two was conducted with the
presence of a ward-based technician for two hours each day. Time-activity ratios were recorded.
Interventions and their severity were recorded in accordance with SHPA classification of pharmacy
interventions. This project showed an increase in time spent by the pharmacist on medication history
taking (+7%), discharge (+6.6%), clinical review (+5.4%), liaising with Medical officers (+3.6%) and
patient counselling (+1.8%) during phase two. A decrease of 23.4% was seen in time spent by the
pharmacist on medication supply. A 47% increase in interventions was achieved when a technician
was present, and 82% of all phase 2 interventions were related to therapeutic or prescribing
recommendations compared to 18% relating to cost and formulary issues. Moderate and major (level
3 and 4) interventions made by the pharmacist increased by 28% during phase two. This was
presented at a Medicines Management conference (both paper and poster).
All technical activity (dispensing, imprest, pre-packing, ward duties) has some level of pharmacist
oversight or final check. Technicians label and prepare all dispensed/pre-packed medications before
a final check by the pharmacist. Ward technicians work closely with their ward pharmacist to
determine individual patient supply quantities and in the identification of some medication related
issues (i.e. in appropriate prescription, re-write errors, non-formulary stock). Technicians manage all
hospital imprest levels, however items kept on imprest are managed by the formulary pharmacist.
Stock holdings for the pharmacy are jointly determined by the purchasing office/data manager and
the formulary pharmacist. Aseptic items are made and labelled by the technician before a final check
by the pharmacist. Other clinical duties such as medication order review, prescriber liaison, and
patient education are undertaken by a pharmacist.
There are no formal educational requirements required to be employed as a technician at our site.
Holding a certificate III or IV in hospital pharmacy practice is highly desirable.
Technicians undertaking our ward role are credentialed before undertaking ward duties. This
credentialing is done by our senior technician (TO2). See credentialing document below. The
technician being trained observes the duties being undertaken before a period of supervised work
and then final credentialing.

Technicians working in aseptic dispensing are trained and validated by a pharmacist experienced in
this area. This involves a number of theoretical sessions followed by a number of practical sessions
in the IV room before final broth testing validation.

Balancing technical and clinical roles to keep the job attractive and to be able to recruit highly
motivated staff is a currently challenging. With attempts to expand technician roles, also comes
managing concerns from pharmacists around levels of training and credentialing, particularly when
clinical activities are involved.
The current shortage of experienced, hospital trained pharmacists has had a huge impact on our
staffing levels, as well as the training and induction burden of new pharmacist staff with little or no
hospital pharmacy experience. Technicians being able to undertake extra duties on the ward
(medication counselling, medication history taking), may alleviate some of these issues.
Technical Officer Level 1 Ward Duties Competency Check List

[Calvary Public Hospital]
NAME: _____________________ DATE: ______________

You must be able to demonstrate the ability to understand and perform the following:
Reflect on and understand the role, processes and responsibilities of the ward technician role
Understand the difference and be able to determine if a medication is formulary or non-formulary
In the Dispensary
Print patient bed lists from ACTPAS
Liaise with ward pharmacist over pending discharges / transferring patients
Check medication tubs for ward deliveries
On the Ward
Communicate appropriately with ward staff –
‘I am the Pharmacy Technician checking which medications need supplying. You will need to ask / get
advice from your clinical pharmacist’.
Correctly interpret the ward journey boards
Locate accurate information of ward imprests either from the medication room, hard copy or iPharmacy
Sort medications from pharmacy into the correct patient tubs
Identify and return medications not dispensed to patients currently on the ward
Correctly Interpreting the Medication Chart

To be able to determine if pharmacy supply is needed you must be able to understand the following
components of a medication chart:
Differentiate between current and old medication charts
Identify a new chart or chart re-write
Identify all current charts
Check and amend current ward details on the patient sticker
Correctly interpret each medication order: drug, dose, route of administration, frequency & time
Identify which medications are ward stock (Imprest), pharmacy supply, Schedule 4D, Schedule 8 and
fridge
Annotate the medications on the chart with the appropriate shorthand: [WS] [PS] [S4D] [S8] [Fridge]
Identify ceased medications
Identify irregular or short term dosing (e.g. Mon, Wed, Fri or 7 days only)
Interpret the administration record with respect to whether the medication has been withheld [WH] or not
administered [N]
Identify charts that require a’ patch check’ to be charted

Identify the time the next dose is due and if supply is on hand
Determine the quantity of meds needed for 1 week taking into account strengths available in the
pharmacy or on imprest
Determine the need for supply of PRN medications
Identify patient’s own medication, place it into a Patient’s Own Green Bag and label accordingly
(UNLESS the medication is required for a non-formulary medication order – patient’s own)
Where possible (if old medication charts are still in the folder) check that medication orders have been
transcribed correctly from old to new charts, making note of any errors for the clinical pharmacist to follow
up
Ordering Medications
Locate patient medication charts in the nurses’ station, from wall racks and in the medication room
Correctly match the patient name between the selected chart, medication tub and bed list
Match each medication order with current stock from the patient’s tub
Calculate the quantity to be ordered from pharmacy by subtracting the current quantity on ward from
quantity needed.
Order pharmacy supply medications using numbered sticky labels without covering relevant information
locate the ward multi-device machine and email relevant medication charts to pharmacy using the email
shortcut for dispensary@calvary-act.com.au
Before Leaving the Ward

Review the patient’s own green bags and remove non-current bags from the ward for transfer to another
ward or to be stored in the patient’s own cupboard
Check the fridge for any non-current patient medications and return them to the dispensary
Identify and pass on any issues that require the attention of the clinical ward pharmacist

6.4.4 Major cities – Private Acute Group A hospital [Norwest Private Hospital NSW]
Contributed by Rhiena-Jius Villegas (Pharmacy Manager), Anjana Rao (Client Engagement
Manager), Norwest Private Hospital, Bellavista and Alan Tuxford (Associate Partner/Regional
Operations Manager), Hospital Pharmacy Services (HPS), Victoria
Overview
The Norwest Private Hospital services 204 beds with clinical pharmacy services provided to areas
such as emergency, intensive care, coronary care, cardiology, medical, surgical, orthopaedics,
maternity & special care nursery units. The pharmacist to technician ratio in the hospital is 1.5 to 1.
The technical roles that pharmacy assistants/technicians undertake include, dispense, Imprest
management, Inventory management, Drug distribution, Deliveries, PBS prescription and claim
management, Hospital Store/Supply Department Liaison, Account and Billing management & support.
Clinical roles provided by technicians include Medication History administrative support – high risk
patient flag, AMS administrative support – traffic light referral register system, Wards rounds for
Medication Supply Referral, Identification and Action, Document clinical administrative support
activities via electronic pharmaceutical care support system - ClinPod™.

a. Medication History administrative support – high risk patient flag
All newly admitted patients are assessed for medication management risk status by the
attending clinician (i.e., nurse, pharmacist, doctor). All high risk patients are referred to the
Clinical Pharmacist (CP) and Ward Technician (WT). The WT will liaise with the patient/carer
and contact the patient’s referring doctor, GP and/or local pharmacy to obtain and file a copy of
the latest medication profile/list and/or dispensed medication history for medication
reconciliation purposes.
b. Antimicrobial Stewardship administrative support – traffic light referral register system

All antibiotic medication orders are identified by the WT and then documented for referral to the
CP and AMS nurse via the ward’s AMS register. The referral is flagged by the WT according to
traffic light system categorisation i.e., green, amber, red (all red flag antibiotics are referred to
the Infectious Diseases (ID) team).
c. Wards rounds for Medication Supply Identification and Action

WT conducts ward rounds moving from bed to bed to review inpatient medication charts to
identify new admissions and new medication orders. WT subsequently alerts the CP via referral
process to the existence of a new order(s) for review. All medication orders that have first been
reviewed by the CP and subsequently approved for supply by the CP will be identified on the
WT ward round and actioned via Inpatient dispensary. The WT will liaise with patient to
determine and record health care/safety net card status, preferred brand, billing requirements
and health fund status.
d. Document all clinical administrative support activities via electronic pharmaceutical care system
- ClinPod™
WT records all activities performed per patient against each patient’s electronic pharmaceutical
care record, in real time utilising ClinPod™.
All technicians work under the supervision of a pharmacist and all activities that affect direct patient
care are all verified and approved by a pharmacist. This relationship is managed in an egalitarian and

collaborative manner. Interactions occur verbally, via communication books, referral registers and
ClinPod™ alerts. All WT activities have been designed to directly impact the workload and workflow
of the CP, so that the CP is able to decrease administrative tasks and to enable the CP to focus and
target their activities for the greatest clinical benefit to patients in terms or outcomes, QUM and
medication safety. WT also carries the ward deck phone/pager and triages all ward telephone
requests on behalf of the CP.
Completion of the Certificate III/IV Community Pharmacy or have completed the Guild Pharmacy
Technician Course (would prefer Certificate IV in Hospital Pharmacy). Completion of pharmacy
orientation/induction program that includes all eLearning modules. One on one, on-the-job training
with mentor and for the WT role – the WT must be a high performing staff member with at the very
least 12 months experience of the Norwest Private Hospital Pharmacy and have completed an
intensive WT training program with supervised practice and review.

Recruitment of trained and experienced staff, retention of trained and experienced staff, and the
development of a career path with suitable roles that recognise skills, training, capability and
experience. Suitable structure of the Enterprise Agreement (EA) to reflect career path and funding
and recognition of new technician roles is also a current challenge in progressing this workforce.
Currently facing increasing demand for expanding comprehensive clinical pharmacy services with
finite clinical pharmacist resources in the face of increasing hospital activity. As a result of the above
there is increasing need to relieve the clinical pharmacist (CP) from as many administrative/technical
functions required of the clinical service so that the CP’s activities are targeted to achieve the greatest
outcome. However for this to occur, CP’s must first have confidence in the skill set of an “advance
practice” technician which will require strong and effective leadership to develop.

7 Future
Participants in both the structured interviews and focus groups were asked to consider what future
technical and clinical roles technicians/assistants could undertake to support advancing clinical roles
of pharmacists. The focus groups were also asked to consider potential barriers to developing future
roles for pharmacy technicians/assistants. The results of the key stakeholder engagement activities
are as follows.
7.1.1 How can pharmacy technicians and assistants support pharmacists to increase their
clinical role?
‘Why are pharmacists doing technical roles? Where it is possible to move these to a pharmacy
technician/assistant then this is a good idea.’ Quote from structured interview
‘Currently pharmacists do a lot of technical tasks such as final check on scripts, order for formulary
items, confirming that restricted items are only used according to hospital protocols, preparing
medication profiles. All these tasks are protocol driven and could be done by a pharmacy assistant,
freeing up the pharmacist.’ Quote from structured interview
‘The practice of pharmacy is not set in stone and perhaps there will be further evolution of practice
enabling pharmacists to better serve the public. When it comes to how that works it will depend on
the structures and process that are required to support those changes.’
Quote from structured interview
There is a strong belief from Australian hospital pharmacy stakeholders that pharmacy
technicians/assistants can have a greater role in technical activities, including the clinical support
tasks within ‘clinical activities’ under existing legislation. Redesigning roles in this way would enable
the pharmacist to undertake further clinical activities.
In considering the professional relationship between pharmacists and pharmacy

technicians/assistants, one stakeholder made the following comment:
‘Wherever we have a pharmacist we should consider how to leverage the partnership to increase
the clinical impact. The challenge is the way we train the pharmacists. We train them to work
independently rather than work with others.’ Quote from structured interview
Taking the pharmacist, technicians and assistants on a journey to develop hospital pharmacy services
will be key for success of future endeavours.
Future directions of the pharmacy technician and assistant workforce was not the focus of the national
survey, however this forum was used to gain initial input into future directions, with a single open
ended question asking ‘Where do you see technician and assistant roles in the future?’
The following themes were identified as the top 5 most frequently cited:
1. Clinical roles including medication reconciliation, counselling and ward technician roles
2. Accuracy checking technicians
3. Technician led dispensaries
4. Research, data collection and education
5. Dispensing and imprest management

Table 5 summarises some of the technical and clinical roles that the focus groups noted as areas
where hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants could take on a greater role in the future.
Table 5: Future roles in Australia - Focus Group Responses
New South Wales Victoria (Melbourne) Western Australia (Perth)

(Sydney)
Future roles Medication history taking Initial screening of patient’s Medication reconciliation on
that would and initial medication medications at admission admission – initial history
enhance reconciliation with referral of and prioritisation (i.e. and screen against history
clinical issues identified to the location of medications and Discharge counselling
pharmacist talk to patients about Supply function of non-
pharmacist
Technician run services medication at time of imprest meds
roles in including dispensaries and admission)
hospitals manufacturing units Technician checking
Stock control for inpatients Take over all designated
drug supply to wards
Technical Management roles including Technician managers Technician checking
Roles in performance review of staff inclusive of complete dispensary manager
Future Technician checking technician run dispensaries S4/S8 responsibility
Drug use evaluation with pharmacist clinical assembly
activities under the direction triage
of a pharmacist Universal technician
checking
Running and managing
reporting
Clinical Counselling patients Initiation of medication Medication history and
Roles in especially at discharge reconciliation form in medication reconciliation
Future (would require increase in obtaining necessary Checking
knowledge base) information for listing of Medication audits/DUEs
Best possible medication admission medicines/
history taking sources/ supply before final
Liaising with medical team review by a pharmacist
as appropriate Therapeutic drug monitoring
roles (reviewing data, basic
calculations and reporting to
pharmacists)
Counselling patients
Structured interviews further elaborated on some of these potential tasks:
- Data collection roles. For example: current medication chart, pathology results, past medical
history. This data can be provided to the clinical pharmacist for decision making.
- Dispensary tech-checking. Tech check Tech systems for inpatients, IV additives (aseptic
transfer) and potentially outpatients.
- Medication information. Generation of discharge medication profiles to be checked by
pharmacist and protocol driven interactions with patients for a variety of medication counselling
roles.
- Medication reconciliation (MR). Specifically, gathering information and completing the
reconciliation.
- Management roles. Technician led dispensaries, staff management, and education
management.
- Patient roles. Medication history taking, assessing ability to self-medicate, management of
patient own medications.

It is interesting to note that many of the roles suggested in this section are roles that pharmacy
technicians/assistants currently undertake as part of role development in selected hospitals in
Australia. In addition, many of these technical roles can be currently undertaken within the remit of
current state based pharmacy legislation.
7.1.2 Barriers/limitations
Human resources, sourcing trained technicians and the limited number of full time equivalent positions
attributed to technician roles are limiting factors in developing future technician roles. Additionally,
training and education quality, consistency and availability, needs to be improved to ensure
consistency in task provision across sites. Comments relating to the lack of career progression and
remuneration resulting in a lack of appropriate personnel in the roles were also made. A lack of
standardisation across the country is a limiting factor for career progression, where progression may
involve movement between hospitals. Before advancing the roles of technicians/assistants, a well-
recognised education and competency development program is required.
Currently, hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants are not clinically trained nor are they trained as
autonomous practitioners, with judgement’, ‘clinical reasoning’ and ‘management’ competencies
currently not addressed through existing qualifications. Under current legislation, errors made by them
will still be the responsibility of the pharmacist. If technicians were to greatly expand their role, they
need to have the legal responsibility, with liability a significant point of discussion within the focus
groups.
As noted earlier in this paper, the current education provisions for pharmacy technicians/assistants
fall below what the industry requires for many of the extended roles that these workers can currently
undertake, with examples of overseas employees being used to fill this national skills gap. Introducing
new qualifications and updating existing qualifications in the National Qualifications Framework is a
large undertaking, while the introduction of National Professional Competency Standards and
credentialing mechanisms are well within the remit of SHPA.
Any development of pharmacy technician/assistant roles must involve pharmacists, who may need to
be socialised to the use of pharmacy technicians/assistants as part of pharmaceutical services
provision as a team.
Pharmacists need to ‘feel safe on this journey’ to ensure they realise that any extension of pharmacy
technician/assistant roles is not encroaching on the existing role of pharmacists. Acknowledging that
some pharmacists may not be interested in extended clinical roles but would rather stay with an
administrative focus is also necessary. In the same way, many pharmacy technicians/assistants do
not have a desire to extend their roles beyond their current functions.
In relation to extended scope of practice roles the following comment was made:
‘Perception from some pharmacists is that pharmacy technicians can’t take on the roles. Perception
from some pharmacy technicians is that they can’t take on the roles either’ Quote from structured
interview
At the state and territory level pharmacy legislation governs who can undertake certain activities such
as dispensing and dangerous drugs movements, while industrial relations instruments such as awards
and EBAs determine role definitions, influence activity ranges for cadres, drive education and create
the structures for possible career advancement.

At the hospital level the hospital executive, finance considerations and human resources departments
are the ‘levers of change’ that can be engaged by Directors of Pharmacy. Significant change is
possible under current arrangements at the individual hospital level where the Director of Pharmacy
is able to effectively interact with these levers of change.
State and territory wide change, and the possibility of more harmonised national systems for hospital
pharmacy technicians/assistants will require significant advocacy and lobbying for change to take
place.
7.1.3 Legal considerations

A significant question presented to focus groups and in the structured interviews was, “Extending the
role of pharmacy technicians and assistants is a balance of ‘accountability’ and ‘professional
responsibility’: what role does registration have?”
In Australia the state ministers of health collectively decide which professions should be registered.
There are currently 14 registered health professionals as part of the national registration scheme with
paramedics currently being considered for national registration. It is unlikely that the role of pharmacy
technicians would develop to a threshold where registration would be considered in the Australian
context in the near or medium term. There is a limited appetite on the part of health ministers, for
admitting further cadres to this scheme (2).
In the Australian context other forms of health professional quality assurance exist. For example,
credentialing that is monitored and reviewed by a professional society. Such an approach is a valid
way to balance responsibility and accountability. Dietitians and other health professionals are
credentialed in such a way.
Workforce development of specific cadres is an organic process where scope of practice and
increased activities are driven by a profession with ongoing interaction with key stakeholders. When
these activities reach a threshold which significantly affects patient care then the regulators get
involved. In the Australian context this would be the ministry of health in each state and territory.
One of the current limitations to increasing scope of practice for hospital pharmacy
technicians/assistants is the absence of a mechanism that balances ‘accountability’ and ‘professional
responsibility’, underpinned by robust competency based education and continuing professional
development. Such an absence sees technicians/assistants less engaged in their profession (a lack
of professional satisfaction and ownership), particularly those that would like to improve their role.
Addressing this issue at a national level, considering national competencies, and providing
professional insurance liability cover to suitably credentialed individuals, would provide a solid
platform from which to build the more advanced roles that may be undertaken by hospital pharmacy
technician/assistants.
The experience, roles and desires of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants varies considerably
across Australia and as such any system considered needs to initially ensure a solid basic foundation
for entry level positions while giving opportunity for advancement for those who wish to move through
that process.

7.1.4 What do hospitals need to move forward?
This question was asked through structured interviews and within the focus groups. The themed
results can be grouped into three main areas:
Advocacy tools and management supports – to support the improved utilisation and expanded
scope for hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants (including business case facts and associated
evidence). This would include both tools and direct technical support to drive change implementation.
Professional standards – that clearly document an agreed set of competencies against set activities,
supported by a learning passport to allow movement of staff between hospitals and potentially states
and territories.
Finance – to support the upskilling of pharmacy technicians/assistants, the time needed for project
work and evidence gathering, the change process of role development, and any new positions.

8 The role of SHPA
‘We need to have clarity around a pathway for this expanded role. There has never been a
roadmap, for the profession to understand and the steps needed to make this happen. Such
steps need to be relevant to: pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, departments of health etc.
SHPA has an enabling role which in the future they could hand over to health departments.
SHPA has the mandate to create this innovation.’ Quote from structured interview
The structured interviews and focus groups clearly demonstrated that SHPA has the brand and
respect among stakeholders to take a leadership role defining standards for pharmacy
technician/assistant roles and associated activities, supporting the development of these
competencies through appropriate quality supportive training and guiding the profession through a
process of optimal use of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants to both free up pharmacists to
engage in advanced clinical activities and to support the development of an improved professional
environment for pharmacy technicians/assistants.
The following opportunities for SHPA were suggested by participants:

• To influence the education system, create standardisation, mandatory training and continuing
education requirements that meet workplace needs.
• To create a national standard definition of roles, competencies and a framework for
credentialing (defining the baseline and advanced roles).
• To enable the discussion for change within the hospital system and support the change
financially.
• To provide leadership through a change management process; SHPA is the logical choice.
(Noting the problems we have now are not different to the problems present 15 years ago)
• To accredit courses and/or administer credentialing exams.
• To be a registered training organisation delivering certificate training.
• To advocate to government what technicians and assistants can do and their role in pharmacy
services provision.
• To provide ongoing continuing professional development offerings (once made mandatory).
8.1 The case for change

Through the engagement of national stakeholders this paper has:
• Provided a detailed review of the current roles and influencing frameworks in Australia
• With consideration of the global context, identified key areas for development in Australia
• Presented changes that are required to enable development
The following points summarise the need and drivers that would support SHPAs continued
involvement to move the Australian hospital pharmacy technician/assistant agenda forward:
 Improving the ability of hospital pharmacists to engage in advanced clinical activities and
supporting the career development of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants is consistent
with the vision and core strategic foci of SHPA.
 The desire to better utilise pharmacy technicians/assistants in Australian hospitals is a priority
of many SHPA members with current development in this area ad-hoc and individual hospital
based.

 Compared to our OECD partners Australia has some of the most underdeveloped systems for
utilising hospital technicians/assistants.
 Currently there is no national approach to hospital pharmacy technician/assistant utilisation
with SHPA as the only national body with an interest and mandate to lead development in this
space.
 Current research demonstrates both a need to develop this space and an opportunity for
effective change with strong national leadership from SHPA.
 Systematic national development of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants could advance
SHPA’s strategic focus with opportunities such as a national accreditation system,
credentialing and continued professional development for hospital pharmacy
Systematic health workforce change can be a slow process with the need for significant advocacy
and development activities over a number of years. Within the Australian hospital pharmacy
landscape there are a number of examples where individual hospitals led by empowered Directors of
Pharmacy, have started to make significant local advances for the improved use of hospital pharmacy
There is currently an opportunity for SHPA to make considered and measured investments to develop
the role of hospital pharmacy technicians/assistants. Investments that build on current developments,
that would position SHPA as the professional leadership body in this space, and provide national
direction and support that individual hospitals could use to leverage local improvements.
A set of prioritised interventions is proposed.
8.2 Prioritised interventions for SHPA to consider

8.2.1 SHPA vision for Australian hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants for 2026
A national environment where entry level technicians/assistants have a sound understanding
of their role and access to education that supports the development of entry and advanced
level competencies. Where technicians/assistants can undergo credentialing for specific
practice areas with national certification, enabling movement between hospitals across
Australia. Where technician/assistant leaders are grown from within to assist in the ongoing
development of the profession, working in partnership with pharmacists to provide enhanced
patient care.
Progress towards this vision may be made with the following interventions:
1. Update current SHPA Standards and workforce definitions available in the SHPA
Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services
2. Develop an Australian pharmacy technician/assistant competency standards
framework and explore SHPA’s role in credentialing individuals for defined competency
areas from entry level to advanced level
3. Explore SHPA’s role in improving accreditation and delivery of national qualifications
4. Document current innovative and advanced practice in each jurisdiction and consider
SHPA support required to broaden this level of practice Australia-wide
5. Hospital pharmacy technician/assistant leadership development
These five activities are expanded in the following pages and provide immediate next steps
opportunities for SHPA. Figure 3 provides a visual interpretation of the how each intervention may fit
together over time.

Short term Medium term Long term
5
Expand leadership
Pharmacy technician and development and
assistant leadership advocacy (advanced)
development
Develop advanced Credential advanced

competencies competencies
2
Develop competency
standards framework and
assessment tool
Explore role in
credentialling individuals
1
Pharmacy assistant and Update SHPA Standards
technicians development and develop workforce
in Australian Hospitals definitions (Chapter 12)
3
Explore SHPA's role in Develop
improving accreditation qualification/competency
and delivery of national supports and/or additional
qualifications education and training
4
Develop jurisdictional
Document innovative and
SHPA supports to enable
advanced practice in local
all sites to practice at
setting
similar levels
Figure 3: Map of suggested interventions

8.2.2 Intervention 1: Update current SHPA Standards and workforce definitions available
in the SHPA Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacy Services
Objective
To ensure SHPA practice standards for pharmacy technicians and assistants are updated reflecting
current and future hospital workplace needs and expectations with supporting definitions for key
workforce members (e.g. pharmacy technician, pharmacy assistant).
Note: National professional standards must consider jurisdictional variation and explain what is
possible within current legislation
Steps
• Federal Council to commission review
• Working group to be formed
• Review current guidelines in light of the redesign project report
• Prepare updated guidelines with supporting workforce definitions
• Undertake consultation process
• Federal Council to endorse updated standards and definitions
• Publish
Timeline
Federal Council commission review by November 2016
6 months for completion
Level of Effort
1 FTE for 10 days
Stakeholders
• Federal Council
• State Branches
• National Pharmacy Technician Network
• Redesign Project Steering Committee
• SHPA members
• Hospitals and Health Services
• Consumers
• Pharmacy Board of Australia

8.2.3 Intervention 2: Develop an Australian pharmacy technician/assistant competency
standards framework and explore SHPA’s role in credentialing individuals for defined
competency areas from entry level to advanced level
Objectives
To develop an Australian hospital pharmacy technician/assistant competency standards framework
that reflects current and envisioned practice up to 2026, from an entry to advanced level.
To develop practice based competency assessment tools and explore SHPA’s role in formally
credentialing individuals who practice to standard, from an entry to advanced level.
Steps
• 10 year vision/goals (i.e. projection to 2026)
• Build on UK Framework and contextualise into Australian experience
• National consultation and international link with FIP (Education Program)
• Methodology used by FIP in developing competency framework
• Validation process
• Focus group discussion
• Online survey validation
• Federal Council review and approval of competency framework
• Concurrently explore SHPA’s role in credentialing individuals for defined competency areas
from entry to advanced level
Timeline
12 months
Level of Effort
0.5 FTE for 12 months (SHPA grant via National Translational Research Collaborative [NTRC])
Stakeholders
• Federal Council
• State Branches
• International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP)
• Steering Committee Redesign Project
• Members
• Consumers
Note: Analogous to Advanced Pharmacy Practice Framework – there is a need to develop a stepped
approach (see below) to achievement of technician/assistant competencies in Australia. In Australia,
there is no measure of performance levels per competency; i.e. to reflect the performance continuum
associated with learning and career progression. The use of such principles would better support and
guide the professional growth of technicians/assistants, and be more accessible nationally, across
multiple sites and jurisdictions but require external and formal credentialing by SHPA.
advanced
consolidation
transition
general
entry

8.2.4 Intervention 3: Explore SHPA’s role in improving accreditation and delivery of national
qualifications
Objective
To explore the SHPA’s role in improving accreditation and delivery of national qualifications to ensure
the development of quality competencies currently sort after by the Australian hospital pharmacy
community.
Long term vision
Improve the quality of national qualifications to ensure the development of quality and consistent
competencies in the pharmacy technician and assistant workforce.
Steps
• Steering committee to be formed and develop terms of reference, which include:
o Exploration of feasibility to improve accreditation and delivery of national qualifications
o Development of a recommendation on the role, if any SHPA should take in regards to
the accreditation and/or delivery of national qualifications
o Review of course content and flexibility of pharmacy units to be delivered
• Terms of reference to be approved by Federal Council
• Complete business case to compare feasibility of accrediting and/or delivering qualifications
Options to consider include:
o Accreditation of current qualifications delivered by current providers
o Explore the role of SHPA in improving accreditation and delivery of national
qualifications
• Make recommendation on most feasible and practical option in business case
• Outline steps required to progress recommendations
• Federal Council review of business case and decision regarding future direction
Timeline
20 – 30 days
Level of Effort
0.4 FTE over 6 months
Will require:
Stakeholder Interviews/financial analysis, including cost of accrediting current qualifications
Stakeholders
• Federal Council
• State Branches
• Pharmaceutical Society of Australia/cooperating registered training organisation
• Members
Note 1: SHPA could therefore have more influence in changing the nature and breadth of
qualifications (e.g. beyond Certificate level) and impose greater consistency across Australia. This
may be possible through accrediting the qualification.
Early entry of SHPA into this space would position it for a future where pharmacy technician/assistant
education was compulsory and where SHPA could support pharmacy technicians/assistants in
advanced practice areas.

8.2.5 Intervention 4: Document current innovative and advanced practice in each jurisdiction
and consider SHPA support required to broaden this level of practice Australia-wide.
Objective
To document current jurisdictional based innovative and advanced practice in the utilisation of hospital
pharmacy technicians/assistants working in partnership with pharmacists. Each case study to detail
how the hospital pharmacy service developed the practice of pharmacy technicians/assistants within
their local and state context inclusive of:
o Interpretation of legislation
o Interpretation of industrial agreements
o Engagement of executive
o Practical implementation inclusive of barriers for sustainability
Steps
• Reference group to be formed
• Identify cases from each jurisdiction for each hospital type [urban vs rural] that display
innovative or advanced practice use of pharmacy technicians/assistants
• Prepare a template for the case study (e.g. a narrative case overviewing key elements or a
structured case study with set headings)
• Template elements/questions to include:
o How did you interpret the legislation?
o How did you get executive on board?
o How the site developed and advanced the role of pharmacy technicians/assistants in
the specific state or territory, within the legislative and industrial environment
o How pharmacist time was released for other duties
• Reference group to review and approve the template developed
• Case studies need to written up in an accessible and practice based manner
• Collect study data
o Option 1 – Project Officer goes to site to interview, observe and develop case study
with hospital pharmacy site and photo evidence
o Option 2 – Email template to hospital pharmacy site and review completed templates
• Analyse exemplar cases for trends across the country
• Outcome may include a 1 page ‘steps to success’ or ‘key requirements for success’ as
determined by analysing case studies undertaken to look for these common aspects across
case studies
• Outline SHPA’s role to ensure the key factors are present in hospitals to enable innovative
and advanced practice
• Publish results in an accessible and practice based format
Timeline
• Identification of cases of best practice by reference group [1 week]
• Preparation of template [1 day]
• Collection of data [Depends on number – days to weeks]
• Analysis of data [2 weeks]
• Publish
Level of Effort
0.4 FTE over 6 months – possible Master’s Project and/or coordinate with National Translational
Research Collaborative (NTRC).

Stakeholders
• Federal Council
• State Branches
• National Translational Research Collaborative
• Members
• Consumers

8.2.6 Intervention 5: Hospital pharmacy technician/assistant leadership development
Objective
Enable pharmacy technicians/assistants to drive their own professional development and workforce
change within Australian hospitals and the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia by offering
support to develop leadership skills.
Steps
• Decision on which leadership competencies SHPA wishes to focus
o (Leader, team skills, project management, finance, management, communication etc.)
• Exploration of options for SHPA to promote leadership development, examples:
o Certificate in health leadership (registered training organisation)
o Consider relevance of existing development opportunities
o Scholarships to take up leadership skills from existing opportunities
o Short courses
o Mentorship
o Leadership development days associated with the conference
o Needs to be relevant and of good quality
• Outline of SHPAs role in making this information accessible
Timeline
6 months
Level of Effort
Depends on SHPA focus
Stakeholders
• Federal Council
• State Branches
• Members
• Consumers

9 Appendices
9.1 Appendix 1: Terms of Reference
TYPE OF COMMITTEE:
Internal
PREAMBLE: The 2014 and 2015 Futures Summit identified Future Models of Clinical Practice as a
key theme for development by SHPA. The SHPA Federal Council has determined that
in order to develop new and advanced practice roles in integrated care there is an
immediate need to build capacity in the pharmacist workforce through developing and
expanding the scope of practice of pharmacy technicians and assistants.
The Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Role Redesign within Australian Hospitals
project aims to review the current roles and frameworks that support hospital pharmacy
technicians across Australia and overseas, identify variations in scope of practice, and
barriers to changes in scope. From a national perspective the project will aim to develop
Australian pharmacy technician scope with appropriate supporting tools to ensure
sustainability into the future.
The project will consult with a range of stakeholders to identify what is required to
enable changes to roles to occur in the future. Such requirements may include task
definition, mentoring, practice-based competency training, industrial relations and/or
legislative changes.
The Redesign Project will ultimately build capacity in the Australian hospital
pharmacy workforce and improve our ability to meet the ever expanding requirements
for hospital pharmacy services from our patients.
PURPOSE: The Re-design Project Steering Committee purpose is to guide the direction of the re-
design project, ensure engagement of key stakeholders, provide expert content
knowledge and drive the development of tools that will support the progression of the
Australian Hospital pharmacy technician workforce.
RESPONSIBLE TO:
Federal Council
MEMBERSHIP:
• Chair*
• Supporting Councillor
• National Pharmacy Technician Network Chair (NPTN)
• Pharmacy Technician member of SHPA
• Any other person who may be appointed from time to time by the Federal Council.
*The Chair may also be the supporting Councillor. If this is the case, an additional
Councillor will be appointed.
The Project Officer acts as secretariat to the Steering Committee.
APPOINTMENT:
The Chair, supporting Councillor and National Pharmacy Technician Network Chair are
appointed by Federal Council. Other Steering Committee members are selected by an
expression of interest process to SHPA members. The Chair recommends

membership selections for appointment to be ratified by Federal Council. Federal
Council will also appoint a Deputy Chair from the Steering Committee membership.
Members are appointed for the life of the project or until otherwise decided by Federal
Council. Federal Council reserves the right to withdraw any appointment should it so
desire.
MEETINGS: Meetings are to be held via teleconference or other electronic means as needed. Face
to face meetings may be necessary on occasion. Support and advice will be provided
by the Project Officer and other SHPA Secretariat staff.
QUORUM: A quorum of the Committee shall consist of a majority of appointed members. At least one
Councillor must be present.
ROLE OF STEERING COMMITTEE:

 Provide expert advice and guidance to the Project Officer on the direction and scope of the
project to ensure high quality outcomes
 Support decision making on the scope of the project based on engagement and
communication with key stakeholders
 Monitor timelines for completion of key deliverables and ensure appropriate progression
throughout the course of the project
 Report on progress and outcomes of the redesign project to Federal Council and make
recommendations to Federal Council on future policies, standards, training, tools and
professional supporting systems required to build capacity nationally in the pharmacy
support workforce
TERMS OF REFERENCE:
• Develop discussion document outlining the current status of hospital pharmacy
technician roles in Australia including comment on professional, industrial and
legislative frameworks, policies, standards and training that support these roles.
• Use discussion document to provide guidance on the use of existing frameworks,
programs and accreditation processes for pharmacy technicians across Australia
to inform the direction of the Redesign project.
• Identify and engage key stakeholders in the redesign project from the outset to
ensure suitability and sustainability of recommendations of scope and workforce
redesign
• Identify future scopes for hospital pharmacy technicians with reference to overseas
counterparts that will reflect workplace expectations and requirements
• Develop a blueprint discussion document outlining barriers to changes in scope
and changes required to enable development of scope of practice for pharmacy
technicians to occur
• Consider the requirements for future standards, policies, procedures, tools and other
resources that will support the development of the hospital pharmacy technicians and the
models of care that engage this workforce
• Develop strategies for Federal Council consideration about advocating for the progression
of this workforce and the models of care that support hospital pharmacy technicians from a
national perspective
• Ensure the project is conducted with the highest integrity and the developed guidance
documents and tools instil confidence in members and other stakeholders
• Oversee communications, promotion, and any formal publication of the project
Please note: Adherence as relevant to other SHPA policies and guidelines including latest versions
on the SHPA Conflict of Interest ; SHPA Code of Ethics and Social Media policy documents.
Author: RRaleigh

9.2 Appendix 2: Engagement across Australia
National Survey – representative across Australia
Graph 1: Percentage of Overall Response by

Location
35.0% 29.2%
30.0% 26.6%
25.0% 18.8%
20.0%
15.0% 11.0% 9.1%
10.0%
5.0% 1.3% 1.9% 1.9%
0.0%
Australian Queensland New South Northern South Tasmania Victoria Western
Capital Wales Territory Australia Australia
Territory
State or Territory
Focus Groups:
New South Wales, Victoria, Western Australia
Mini Case Studies:

Australian Capital Territory - Major City Public Acute Group A Hospital
Queensland - Major City Principal Referral
New South Wales - Major City Private Acute Group A Hospital
South Australia - Outer Regional Public acute group B hospital
Structured Interviews:
Queensland - Outer Regional Public Acute Group C hospital
Northern Territory – Department of Health
South Australia - Major City Public acute Group A hospital
Tasmania - Inner Regional Private Acute Group A hospital
Victoria - Major City Principal Referral Hospital
Additional: Pharmacy Board of Australia
Project engagement across jurisdictions:

• ACT – 1
• QLD – 2
• NSW – 2
• NT – 1
• SA – 2
• TAS – 1
• VIC – 2
• WA - 1
The Redesign Project covers a wide range of hospital from Principal Referral to Group C across a
range of locations in both the Public and Private sectors.

9.3 Appendix 3: SHPA Standards of Practice – Chapter 12

10 References
1. SHPA. Society of Hospital Pharmacy of Australia Melbourne, Australia2016
[Available from: http://www.shpa.org.au/.
2. Personel communication with Dr A.N.Brown. Canberra, Asutralia2016.
3. Horon K HT, Gorman SK, Heukshorst S. Should pharmacy technicians provide
clinical services or perform patient care activities in areas without a pharmacist? Can J Hosp
Pharm. 2010;63(5):391-4.
4. Kaboli P, Hoth A, McClimon B, Schnipper J. Clinical pharmacists and inpatient
medical care: a systematic review. Archives of Internal Medicine. 2006;166(9):955-64.
5. Kobayashi K, Le H, editors. Determining the impact of a new medication-history
Pharmacy Technician Program [abstract]. Proceedings of the ACCP Annual Meeting.
Pharmacotherapy; 2014.
6. Cooper JB, Lilliston M, Brooks D, Swords B. Experience with a pharmacy technician
medication history program. American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP: Official
Journal Of The American Society Of Health-System Pharmacists. 2014;71(18):1567-74.
7. Turner SJ, Lam SS, Leung BK, Toh CT. Establishing the Role of a Clinical Pharmacy
Technician. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2005;35(2):119-21.
8. Mabasa V, Malyuk D, Balen R. Using clinical pharmacy support technicians to
optimize pharmaceutical care practice in the intensive care unit setting [abstract] Conference
Proceeding. Critical Care Medicine2009. p. A54.
9. Elliott RA, Perera D, Mouchaileh N, Antoni R, Woodward M, Tran T, et al. Impact of
an expanded ward pharmacy technician role on service-delivery and workforce outcomes in
a subacute aged care service. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2014;44(3):95-
104.
10. Seaton SM, Adams RC. Impact of a Hospital Pharmacy Technician Facilitated
Medication Delivery System. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2010;40(3):199-
202.
11. Leversha A, Ahlgren KL, Gray MJ. Ward Pharmacy Technicians Assist Clinical
Pharmacists with Admissions. The Australian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy. 2001;31(2):130-
2.
12. Benavides S, Rambaran K. Pharmacy technicians: Expanding role with uniform
expectations, education and limits in scope of practice [editorial]. Journal of Research in
Pharmacy Practice. 2013;2(4):135-7.
13. Association of Pharmacy Technicians (APTUK): The Professional Leadership Body
for Pharmacy Technicians Birmingham2016 [Available from: http://www.aptuk.org/about-us/.
14. Alkhateeb FM, Shields KM, Broedel-Zaugg K, Bryan A, Snell J. Credentialing of
pharmacy technicians in the USA. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice.
2011;19(4):219-27.
15. Conroy C, Cattell R, Nicholls M. Contribution of a ward-based technician service to
delivering effective patient health care and reducing dispensary workload. International
Journal of Pharmacy Practice. 2002;10(3):171-5.
16. Buck T, Gronkjaer L, Duckert M-L, Rosholm J-U, Aagaard L. Medication
reconciliation and prescribing reviews by pharmacy technicians in a geriatric ward. Journal of
Research in Pharmacy Practice. 2013;2:145.
17. Faulkner B, Bateman S, Marven M, Harrison I. Medicines management technicians in
mental health. Hospital Pharmacist. 2006;13(2):58-60.
18. Anto B, James KL, Barlow D, Brinklow N, Oborne CA, Whittlesea C. Exploratory
study to identify the process used by pharmacy staff to verify the accuracy of dispensed
medicines. The International Journal Of Pharmacy Practice. 2013;21(4):233-42.
19. McKee J, Zimmerman M. Tech-check-tech pilot in a regional public psychiatric
inpatient facility. Hospital Pharmacy. 2011;46(7):501-11.
20. Myers CE. Opportunities and challenges related to pharmacy technicians in
supporting optimal pharmacy practice models in health systems. American Journal Of

Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP: Official Journal Of The American Society Of Health-
System Pharmacists. 2011;68(12):1128-36.
21. Clayson-Fisher T. Broadensing the technician role. Proceedings of the 41st National
Conference of The Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia Melbourne, Victoria2015.
22. Carroll ME, Galbraith KJ, Dooley MJ. Potential Support Roles for Pharmacy
Technicians in Provision of Clinical Pharmacy Services. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and
Research. 2003;33(3):186-93.
23. Adams AJ, Martin SJ, Stolpe SF. "Tech-check-tech": a review of the evidence on its
safety and benefits. American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP: Official Journal
Of The American Society Of Health-System Pharmacists. 2011;68(19):1824-33.
24. Reed M, Thomley S, Ludwig B, Rough S. Experience with a "tech-check-tech"
program in an academic medical center. American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy.
2011;68(19):1820-3.
25. Siemianowski LA, Sen S, George JM. Impact of pharmacy technician-centered
medication reconciliation on optimization of antiretroviral therapy and opportunistic infection
prophylaxis in hospitalized patients with HIV/AIDS. J Pharm Pract. 26. United States2013.
p. 428-33.
26. Rodriguez Esquire A, Turner P, Vera D, editors. Advancing the role of the pharmacy
technician: Medication reconciliation [abstract] Conference Proceeding of the Joint Forces
Pharmacy Seminar. Journal of the American Pharmacists Association; 2013.
27. Friesner DL, Scott DM. Identifying characteristics that allow pharmacy technicians to
assume unconventional roles in the pharmacy. J Am Pharm Assoc 50. United States2010.
p. 686-97.
28. Society of Hospital Pharmacists Australia - Chapter 12: Pharmacy Assistants and
Technicians Supporting Clinical Pharmacy Services. Journal of Pharmacy Practice &
Research. 2013;43(2).
29. Siemianowski L, Murphy M, McAllister SC. Implementation of a pharmacy technician-
centered medication reconciliation program at an urban teaching medical center. American
journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of
Health-System Pharmacists. 2014;71(1):51-6.
30. HLT - Certificate III and IV in Hospital/Health Services Pharmacy Support (Release
1): Commonwealth of Australia; 2012 [cited 2016]. Available from:
https://training.gov.au/Training/Details/HLT37115.
31. Pharmacy Technician Certification Board 2014 [Available from: http://www.ptcb.org.
32. Mistri J, Miller P, Coates J, editors. Establishing a process for pharmacy technician
initiated medication histories in the emergency department [abstrac] Conference Proceeding
of the CSHP summer Education Sessions. Canadian Journal of Hospital Pharmacy; 2009.
33. O'Leary KM. Two National Surveys of Hospital Pharmacy Technician Activities to
Support the Review of National Qualifications. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research.
2012;42(1):43-7.
34. Pharmacy Board of Australia. Guidelines for dispensing of medicines. Melbourne:
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency. 2010.
35. Cater SW, Luzum M, Serra AE, Arasaratnam MH, Travers D, Martin IBK, et al. A
prospective cohort study of medication reconciliation using pharmacy technicians in the
emergency department to reduce medication errors among admitted patients. The Journal of
emergency medicine. 2015;48(2):230-8.
36. Lees CAL, Capstick TGD. The role of the pharmacy technician in training inhaler
technique for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Clinical Pharmacist.
2010;2(9):S37.
37. van den Bemt PM, van den Broek S, van Nunen AK, Harbers JB, Lenderink AW.
Medication reconciliation performed by pharmacy technicians at the time of preoperative
screening. The Annals Of Pharmacotherapy. 2009;43(5):868-74.

38. Brancaleone CP, Brough S, Krska J, Morecroft CW, editors. Evaluating the impact of
a ward pharmacy technician on clinical pharmacist interventions in a medical admissions unit
[Conference Proceeding]. International Journal of Pharmacy Practice; 2013.
39. O'Leary KM, Allinson YM. Snapshot of the Australian Public Hospital Pharmacy
Workforce in 2007. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2009;39(1):28-33.
40. O'Leary KM, Allinson YM. Snapshot of the Australian public hospital pharmacy
workforce in 2005. Journal of Pharmacy Practice & Research. 2006;36(2):103-6.
41. O'Leary KM, Allinson YM. Snapshot of the Australian Public Hospital Pharmacy
Workforce in 2003. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2004;34(2):104-8.
42. O'Leary KM, Harding A, Rocca J. Victorian Hospital Pharmacy Technician Workforce
Survey. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2006;36(1):32-4.
43. Elliott RA, Perera D, O'Leary K. National Survey of Clinical Pharmacy Services and
Pharmacy Technician Roles for Subacute Aged-Care Inpatients. Journal of Pharmacy
Practice and Research. 2012;42(2):125-8.
44. O'Leary KM, Allinson YM. Pharmacy Clinical and Distribution Service Delivery
Models in Australian Public Hospitals. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research.
2004;34(2):114-21.
45. Maslanka E, Leach HJ. Expanding the Role of a Pharmacy Technician in a Private
Hospital. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2004;34(2):131-2.
46. Henderson D, Johnson-Choong S, Wiles S. Pharmacy technician's role in an
ambulatory care infusion clinic. American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP:
Official Journal Of The American Society Of Health-System Pharmacists. 2000;57(18):1664-
5.
47. APTUK. Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK, Birmingham, United Kingdom
2016 [Available from: http://www.aptuk.org.
48. Ervin KC, Skledar S, Hess MM, Ryan M. Data analyst technician: an innovative role
for the pharmacy technician. Am J Health Syst Pharm. 2001;58(19):1815-8.
49. Irwin AN, Heilmann RMF, Gerrity TM, Kroner BA, Olson KL. Use of a pharmacy
technician to facilitate postfracture care provided by clinical pharmacy specialists. American
journal of health-system pharmacy : AJHP : official journal of the American Society of
Health-System Pharmacists. 2014;71(23):2054-9.
50. Weber E, Hepfinger C, Koontz R, Cohn-Oswald L. Pharmacy technicians supporting
clinical functions. American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP: Official Journal Of
The American Society Of Health-System Pharmacists. 2005;62(23):2466-72.
51. ASHP statement on the pharmacy technician's role in pharmacy informatics.
American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy: AJHP: Official Journal Of The American
Society Of Health-System Pharmacists. 2014;71(3):247-50.
52. Burnett D, Dooley MJ, Wall D. Cell-Based Therapies—A Role for Pharmacy
Technicians. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2003;33(4):296-8.
53. Garrett T. Pharmacy Workforce Recruitment and Retention: an Australian Area
Health Service Perspective. Journal of Pharmacy Practice and Research. 2008;38(3):183-7.
54. Council of Australian Governments (COAG) Health Council: HCDSMC; 2014
[Available from: http://www.coaghealthcouncil.gov.au/NRAS.
55. Victorian Public Health Sector (Health Professionals, Health and Allied Health
Professionals, Health and Allied Services, Managers & Administrative Officers) Enterprise
Agreement 2011-2015
56. Operational Services Manual. 2012.
57. QCPP. Quality Care Pharmacy Program Canberra, Australia 2016 [Available from:
http://www.qcpp.com/qcpp-home.
58. AIHW 2015. Australian hospital peer groups. Health services series no. 66. Cat. no.
HSE 170. Canberra: AIHW.
Approved by Federal Council: 13 November 2016

Final Tech Redesign White Paper November Revision

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Final Tech Redesign White Paper November Revision

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Exploring the role of hospital

pharmacy technicians and

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 2

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 3

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 4

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 5

Key themes in the report

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 6

Overview of the current roles and influencing frameworks in Australia

 Roles and responsibilities

 Education and Training

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 7

 Legislative and industrial frameworks

Consideration of global context in identifying key areas for development in Australia

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 8

The need for change

Opportunities for SHPA in Pharmacy Technician and Assistant Role Redesign

The following opportunities for SHPA were suggested by participants:

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 10

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 11

2.1 Australian context

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 12

• ADVOCATING, LEADING & PARTNERING to influence excellence in medicines management

2.3 Aim of this paper

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 13

Project Officer: Rachael Raleigh (BPharm, GradCertPharmPrac, MClinPharm Candidate)

3.1 Literature review

3.2 Review of supporting frameworks

The national frameworks reviewed included:

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 14

The aims of these activities were:

3.3.1 National Survey

Graph 1: Percentage Of Overall Response by Location

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 15

Graph 2: Percentage Response Rate of State/Territory Response

Graph 3: Hospital size by Bed Number

3.3.2 Focus Groups

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 16

3.3.4 Mini Case Studies

3.3.5 Data analysis

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 17

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 18

4.2 International Context

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 19

4.2.1 Example international role supports for hospital pharmacy technicians

4.3 Australian context

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 20

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 21

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 22

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 23

Australia Europe N America Australia Europe N America

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 24

4.3.1 Australian role supports for hospital pharmacy technicians

International pharmacy workforces have demonstrated that mandatory regulation implementation,

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 25

5.1 The role of the Pharmacy Board of Australia (PBA)

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 28

Guidelines for dispensing medicines (section 12).

5.2 Director of pharmacy as a nationally consistent management approach

The Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia 29

6.1 Roles and responsibilities of hospital pharmacy technicians and assistants

Graph 4: Number of FTE employed by respondent

NAME: _______ DATE: